New Years in the Big Apple

This year for my first winter "shutdown" at work Tim and I decided to head to New York to experience the city during the holidays and to be there for New Years! We had a nice long trip and got a lot in during our trip. We stayed with Mandy at her cute Astoria apartment for part of the trip, and then we spent the last part of the trip at the Sheraton in Times Square. Anne and Mike Malone met up with us our third day into the trip, and it was nice to spend time with them and Mandy in NY and we got to share in on Mike's birthday too! It was a wonderful experience to visit Rockefeller Center and see the huge sparkling Christmas Tree (it really does sparkle)! Some other highlights were seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway and the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular Show! The solider dance they did was incredible!

We also ate like crazy, thanks mostly in part to Michelle and Wolf's amazing recommendations and to the W's restaurant, Blue Fin, with the best waffles and pancakes in town! Blue Fin is a must do breakfast place in Times Square! Ben Bensons, Macao Trading Co., and Corner Bistro are also highly recommended! Thanks Michelle and Wolf (we also hit up most of the bars you recommended on our all day pub crawl the first day we were there)!

The art we saw in NY was also a huge highlight to me. The MoMa had a special exhibition called Starry Night, with famous works by Van Gogh, and some of the same exact paintings that we saw in Amsterdam's Van Gogh museum! Tim and I felt well "cultured" (that doesn't happen too often) seeing some of his paintings twice! But, then again, we soaked up a lot of "culture" in Amsterdam! At the Met I took a small tour group on American artists and learned about Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, and Mary Cassatt. We also took a tip from my fav book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, and hit up the Frick Museum across from Central Park. This was an incredible private collection, buzzing with art buffs, and socialites. I love seeing private collections and learning about why the collector has chosen certain pieces, and how they came to acquire the works!

New Years night we went to a intimate concert with Blonde Redhead (which Tim knows from Bumbershoot) at the Terminal 5 venue. Mike and Anne got VIP seating, while Tim, Mandy, and I stood at danced the night away. At midnight the opening act, Elvis Perkins sang Auld Lang Syne and they shot out paper white doves from the stage. Tim got a sweet new years kiss because I bought some fruit punch lip gloss especially for him and that kiss! Meanwhile, back at our empty hotel room at Times Square we had a full view of the Ball drop, and all the crazies standing outside in -20 degree windy weather. The good news is they were practicing the ball drop all week, so we saw the practice run the night before! We learned they are leaving the Ball up year round, so anyone visiting NYC will be able to see it! It was a memorable New Years, and such a fun trip!

Of course I can't forget this classic pic of Annett and me (and rapper picture faces on) with our new bff.

Highlights from 2008

So, since I haven't blogged since the middle of my England Adventure about 2 years ago, I thought I should do a little recap of some of the highlights from 2008. Am I missing anything? If so let me know and I will accept, based on how big of a highlight I believe it to be ; )

Leave my job in commercial escrow at First American.
Meet Warren G on New Years in Orange County, Annett asks him if he wants to "do something"
Move from Orange County to Ventura and buy a new home in River Park.
Find my new job at Amgen as a Paralegal for the Legal Group in Clinical Contracting.
Paint our living room a baby blue that does not work, paint the guest rooms silver sage that we love.
Go snowboarding at Big Bear!
Find my new Morning Wake Up Yoga class with Katherine, Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:15am, and make new Yoga friends.
Meet Jill and Jeremy in Vegas for their annual birthday trip! Palms hotel is amazing.
Mandy comes to visit before leaving for Florida and moving to New York.

Meeting up with Michelle for lunches on her trips up and down the 101
Suffered terrible pain from gallstones found by ultrasound, and schedule a surgery date to have my gallbladder removed (realization that my body thinks I am old due to my favorite drink being a seven and seven).
Go down to San Diego for Kevin's SDSU college graduation!
Take amazing pain killer pills.
Have surgery (by a surgeon that "walks on water" in my mind) and remove gallbladders - pain free now!
My parents come to help take care of me and Tim.
Amgen's "summer shutdown" - are you serious? This company rocks!
I celebrate my 28th birthday and Tim treats me to a day spa and massage at the Ojai Resort and Spa
Annett's bachelorette party in Palm Springs! What happens in Palm Springs stays in Palm Springs.
Tim and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary of our 8/5/06 wedding with a romantic dinner with views of the ocean!
My friend Andrew comes to visit from the bookstore I worked at while we were living in Windsor, England.
Annual trip to Seattle for bumbershoot! (Tim and Dan's 9th year, my 5th year). Hang out with D&K&E&E - my favorite performances: Band of Horses, Black Keyes and Joe Bonamassa
We meet and adopt our sweetie dog, Elle.
Hiking trips in Santa Barbara!
Ben and Annett get married September 13, 2008 by far one of the most beautiful weddings ever!
We sit VIP at the MGMT, Spoon, & Beck concert at Hollywood bowl!
My first camping trip at Jalama Beach in SB!
Jill comes for a baby shower in Camarillo and to see our place and meet Elle, we try out the high security Watermark in Ventura.
Meet up with our friends, the Nacelli's in Orange County.
Meet up with the Malones in San Diego for the American Cancer Society Walk at Balboa Park.
Plan to be one of "those girls" on Halloween with my friend Molly in downtown Ventura - success.
Participate in Amgen's 2008 Tennis Open tournament. Come in 3rd place for Women's Doubles!

Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States, I will always remember watching his victory speech up in my bed --- "change has come to America"
Start tutoring for a sweet 5 year old Daisy every Wednesday night - she is so smart!
Spend Christmas in Lafayette with all our family.

Sign up to take a winter quarter legal studies class for Contract Law at UCSB extension.
Trip to New York with the Malones to see Mandy and celebrate New Years in the big apple.

Purchase my first pair of Wellies (I think that's a highlight!)

Jet Setters Michelle & Wolf in Town for Thanksgiving

Michelle and Wolf had their flight booked to London before we even booked ours, so we had been looking forward to their visit since our arrival in England. Michelle picked the dates based on a prosegious Design Workshop Class she signed up for at the Design Center in London which happened to coincide with Thanksgiving. As all our friends and family stories begin, we pulled into Heathrow early Thanksgiving mornings and waited anxiously for them to pop out of the arrivals gate. The flight from New York is not nearly as bad as the flight from California, so we came home dropped their bags and jetted off to London (minus Chef Tim). As all tourists must do, we hitched the nearest Red Double Decker and scoped out the city! It was a beautiful day and the clear skies allowed us great views of the city sites! We stayed until the sun was setting and the Christmas lights over Regents Street were starting to be hung! Meanwhile, Chef Tim stayed home slaving over the Turkey and making further preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. Once Michelle, Wolf, and I got home the house was filled with the smell of an American Thanksgiving feast. We relaxed with wine, turkey (well the vegetarian skipped the turkey – but appreciated the tradition), stuffing, green bean casserole, mashpotoes, cranberry and orange relish….for dessert Tim made a pumpkin cheese cake that was out of this world! (More to follow on the yummy pumpkin cheesecake).

The next morning Michelle headed into London for her fashion class where she was able to network with some influential Londoners at the Champagne Reception afterwards. Sorted! Meanwhile Tim and Wolf met up in London to wander the city, see the Tower of London and then hitch a boat ride along the Thames. I had to work, but met up with the three of them later that night. We went to an area called Brink Lane a.k.a. Curry Mile – a long stretch of street with all Indian food restaurants and similar variations. After dinner we went to a bar called Lounge Lover (where Madonna recently had her birthday party). Needless to say we loved the lounge and continued our late night fun. Cheesecake was waiting for us when we got home that night (morning) and so began the tradition of late nights and having cheesecake upon arrival home.

The next morning we headed to London, caught the tube and got off in the very fashionable Notting Hill neighborhood. After strolling the streets (getting slightly lost) we headed to Portobello Market, a cool street market that has anything and everything you could imagine. We wandered for several hours browsing the street vendors and shops. Lots of neat stuff, but we came home empty handed. Later we “tubed it” to Oxford and Regents streets to see the beautiful Christmas decorations, shop a little and go to a great restaurant called Rocket. Searching for the restaurant was like finding a needle in a haystack…it was tucked away in a tiny side alley. The food was great (and not too expensive) which is tough to find in London. After dinner we went to a members only club (the girls talked our way in) and had a little dancing fun with the locals. Pumpkin cheesecake was there to greet us when we got home.

Michelle and Wolf were dropped off at the good 'ol Slough train and headed on their way!