16 September 2007

ben harper encore

You are always supposed to be exactly where you are when you are there. I was not supposed to be out on a date last night as noted by my date who “forgot”. My ego a little bruised I decided to walk it off and just started headed in the direction of home. A gentleman asked me if I knew where the Triumph hotel was and then asked me how my night was going. “I just got stood up”, I replied. The look on his face was priceless but he quickly recovered and asked me if I wanted to go and see Ben Harper with him and some friends as they had an extra ticket. I said yes immediately and within thirty minutes was sitting eighth row in Radio City Music Hall watching an incredible show with five new friends. Drinks on the rooftop of the Peninsula Hotel proceeded bar hopping and grilled cheese at my favorite late night hangout. All in all an evening that took a turn down made a nice 180.

Here’ what sucks about being a girl. I don’t profess to be a girl in most forms of the word, I don’t take eighty years to get ready, I hang with the boys, I like sports, I don’t let my emotions get in the way, and I certainly don’t take things too seriously. I am currently kicking myself for being a girl when it comes to John. Looking back over the past few weeks, I have been building things up in my head instead of taking it slow as we both established the first night. I had a nice wake up call today, sitting here thinking about conversations, how I have been a little too overly aggressive, and acting like a girl, pure and simple. I have decided to go into our date tonight with the mindset of what happens, happens, I can’t believe I let myself slip into the girl mind frame and set myself up for over thinking It is a sophomoric mistake that hopefully I have caught in time.

p.s. my humsaa necklace broke today...i wonder what the hell that means?

12 September 2007

liam

Something more to add to my top five best feelings: watching Ducks football when they are playing amazing. Being in the Bighouse for the big win last week was incrediable!!! The whole weekend in Detriot was a success, hanging out with my best bud, her family, seeing old friends, rooting on our team, attending a Ben Harper concert (8th row), and then having my friend come back with me...Good Stuff!

BFS

I picked up a trip to Belfast to round out my turn of Ireland and to also bring along Janene. The crew was great, the hotel located in the heart of the town filled with so much history, and the company was a unique and welcomed change. We got to the room and napped for a bit before heading out to site see. Our first stop was the Crown Saloon, which is modeled after something on the Titanic or something like that. They poured a mean pint of Guinness, that is all I cared about. After making friends with the barkeep, we wandered around some more and came upon the oldest pub in Belfast. At Kelly's we ordered up a pint and took in the old building. It wasn't long before we were joined by a gentleman named Liam. He proceeded to explain the history of not only the pub but the conflict that still plagues Northern Ireland. According to his story we were sitting in the very seats were the IRA was formed. The declaration was upon the wall and the passion behind his story made the hairs on my arms stand up. This is why I love traveling.

dtw

A major thing I miss about my previous life was attending Duck games. It is the perfect fall thing to do, get the Duck gear on, drive down to Eugene with friends, grab pizza at Tracktown, tailgate, and then cheer our team onto victory. I wasn’t able to attend a single game last year but to day I am heading to the Bighouse. Not jail, rather Michigan to watch my team play ball. I have already made friends with the four Oregon fans on the plane.

Today was also my first day with NY public transportation. With my previous history of it in Jersey you can understand why I allowed myself four hours to make my flight. I must say, however, it was a breeze and I was from my door to security in an hour and a half. I think I lucked out with my past month of driving in the city but the last attempt to drive to work and the two hours I sat in traffic was enough. I am now bound and determined to learn my way around the subway and the city without driving or cabs. I was made fun of on more than one occasion for being a “princess” about my getting around. Well princess here is going to enjoy her weekend in Michigan with good friends, football, and plenty of Bud Lites.

05 September 2007

jpk

Let me tell you about this guy...
I have had two dates officially with John. Introduced to him at a bar two weeks ago and my walls have already been brought down. He is handsome, smart, funny, and so sweet. Our last date was spent in Central Park walking around, hand in hand while he narrated the surroundings. I never thought I would be the person that was so giddy to see someone, or thought about them daily. I was not a believer until it happened. The cynical side of me keeps some walls up just in case so my heart doesn't get stomped on again. But I get it now; I understand why Christina squeals at movies, why Nichole was so enamored, and how your heart could flutter about the single thought of someone. What does all of this mean? I have no clue, but at the moment I am acting outside of my normal box and letting life take me where it may.

top five

Christina and I pose questions to each other all the time in order to get to know each other better and to challange the others mind. My question to her the other evening was: "What is your top five best feelings?". Here is my list thus far, in no particular order...
¬getting a 100% on a test
¬how I feel the last five minutes of a yoga class
¬how I felt when John kissed me for the first time
¬singing along to a song you know at an Irish/UK pub
The fourth is concreted tonight as I am in Edinburgh and enjoying this beautiful city. Crew scheduling being in charge of my life has wound me up in EDI, after first being assigned LGW then airport alert and then EDI. This city is absoletely beautiful with its coast line, history, castles, the friendly people, kilts, bag pipe players, and adorable dogs. I spent the day walking around and the evening in a Scottish pub listening to music. I can safely say that this town has moved into my top three favorites thus far.

04 September 2007

cafeteria ban lifted

The roomie and I have been home for the past week hanging out. She was feeling a bit blue so we made a date prior to our last trip for dinner and some girl time. We didn't get motivated until 2300 so dinner was scratched and replaced with going out. The east village was our destination as we decided to get out of our ues bubble and see what else NYC had for us. We stopped by a previous visited bar and grabbed a drink before wandering for a bit to the suggested place Solas. We walked in and it was dead but we stayed because they had connect four. We were ordering our second round and had graduated up to jenga when the bar filled up and the karaoke began. Christina has an amazing voice so she was right up there but in order to get a mic in my hands, it takes a lot of booze. Long story short, I sang a couple of duets. The bar closed down and not quite ready to go home, we decided to press our luck at Cafeteria. We were banned previously from my puking and passing out. We walked in casually with some random nerd we found on the street and ordered our usual. The next day was spend in bed, hung-over....urgh...am I getting old!
Wednesday was work out day for me as I finally found someone to play tennis with. I walked two miles, biked three, and play tennis for two hours. I came home to find Christina ready to go out, so I showered up and we hit the town. This time we went to Nolita to check out some bars she found. Nothing was poppin' so I made the decision that I wanted to see my boy at midnight. We walked into his bar and I stopped with hesitation in front; then walked in nervous as can be. We stood there patiently as he made drinks and it was while he stopped to take a sip of water that he noticed me. It was the perfect reaction and he took a second to figure out how to get to me. Single most romantic moment in my life: he scaled the bar, picked me up and kissed me. I could hear C squealing in the background. So we hung out for a while, me talking to firemen and gazing at him, Christina talking to the nerdy guys that had followed us from three bars previous. 0200 rolled around and we decided to call it an evening and get some grilled cheese. Back to our place we went, un-detected...that is damn good grilled cheese!!!