Sunkissed VoxBox by Influenster!

Well, it's been quite some time since I wrote a little review, so here we go. I got a sweet little VoxBox from Influenster just over a month ago and must share the "ingredients" with you!

So, here is what I got! It was definitely one of the better VoxBoxes that I've gotten so far!

Alright people, let's start with my favorite item, the Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream.

I've never really been one to use face creams or moisturizers before I put my make up on in the morning, but with the summer here, I've started to put this on under my makeup and honestly, I LOVE it. For starters, it has SPF in it. I can't say I've always been the best about my SPF usage in the past, but that wisdom comes with age and now that I'm in my late 20s and obviously wise beyond my ears, SPF is key. Secondly, I think it really "preserves" my make up for the day. I feel that I look "fresher" longer throughout the day. So yea, go out and get it! Oh, and one last thing -- there has been a "heat wave" for like the last 3 weeks in NYC and I feel like using this, I don't feel like I look greasy when I arrive at work after a 1.5 mile walk to work in this damn humidity!

Second favorite item! Goody Ouchless Ribbon Elastics!

These things are great. I can put my hair up and walk to work with one of these in my hair and no joke, I can get to work, take my hair down and there is barely a crease in my hair, if one at all. Like I said, with the heat and humidity, there is NO way that I can stand to walk to work without my hair up or I'd look identical to a wet rat by the time I arrived. So yes, go out and get these. They're amazing and did I mention, they're cute too??

Ok, what is next. Ahh, my Dr. Scholl's Inserts.

Put these in a pair of heels at work and love them. They really do add some comfort and cushion to my walk and I have never used the full foot insert before. I've used the one that just comforts the ball of your foot, but I really enjoy this one. Also, it totally makes my shoe stay on better!

Final item!

Really loved the color of this polish (Mardi Gras) and it went on really nicely. I haven't bought any at the store, but rumor has it it's only $2.99! That's a steal compared to my usual Essie at $8 a pop! It comes in a ton of colors (I think somewhere around 36!) so go out and check it out!

So, that is this month's VoxBox! I honestly loved all of the items so it was really hard to choose what I reallllly liked the most. So, there you go. All of them!

Until next VoxBox!

xo!

L

Just a little disclaimer: I am not paid to review any of these products. I receive these items as a member of Influesnter.com. I highly recommend checking out the site!

Slacker City!

Wow. So, as of Saturday, it's been approximately one month since I have posted. Kinda sad. But, in my defense, we've been supa-dupa busy. Let's see.

• Last weekend in June I did a 5 mile PRIDE Run in Central Park. It was awesome and just after DOMA got voted down so it was amazing to see the love. 
• Then we attended the Summer Fancy Foods show at the Javits Center. Yea, we're really not that cool, but my boss knows someone who put our name in and before you know it we were eating $150 prosciutto and trying to act like we weren't hovering at their station.
• Hmm, what's next, 4th of July? (I'm literally looking at a calendar while I write this, so I'm really just pretending that I didn't know what weekend was next.) We hit up the Poconos with Kim and Kyle and had an awesome time. We fished, kayaked, Brandon golfed, I played tennis, drank, relaxed and over all it was a nice, relaxing, non-crazy, perfect long weekend.
• And that brings us to this last weekend. We went to visit Melissa and Dan at their new home in Hampton Bays. They are renovating most of the house and it is going to be amazing when they are done. It was just nice to see some friends, hang out, relax. Unfortunately, the weather was total crap on Saturday, but we had a great dinner with them, Kate and Steve and overall, it was really just about us all getting together.

So, that brings me to today, July 15. First of all, it's a Monday night and I'm about to start drinking my 3rd margarita of the night. It's #Bachelorette night here in the house and it's hometown dates. Brandon usually uses this as an excuse to drink, so tonight he came home with a few ingredients that I thought, hmm, what is he up to? Well, he says, "I'm making margarita's!" We cheers and I asked him what to, and he said, "Summer!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that summer actually started 1 month ago. But, c'est la vie. Who am I to rain on someones parade??

So this Friday, we head to the dirty dirty to check out Zac Brown Band at the PNC Bank Arts Center, after spending a day at the beach. Totes looking forward to a little beach time, a little date time and a little bit of country music time...because these days...I'm in a southern state of mind...

On that note, lemme finish this up and get to posting about the latest VoxBox!

xo!

L

Oh. Em. Gee.

You guys, if this blog was a baby, I'd be charged with a serious case of neglect right now. So it's been 17 days since I posted here? 2 weeks and 3 days? 408 hours? 28,800 minutes. How do you measure a life of neglect?

I digress. Rent songs really get me every time. Ok, so this is a seriously ADD post right now, so lemme round up what has been up since June stinking 2nd.

Ok, so I have been taking some online classes which are consuming a lot of my time. I am really enjoying them, but they are a lot of reading and a lot of writing. The classes I am taking are Science Fiction, surprisingly entertaining and I am enjoying it. The other class I am taking is Intro to Journalism. I also like this class, but I have to say, and this is going to sound awful: my classmates are dumb. I try to remind myself over and over again that they are about 10 years younger than me, but that's not really it...they don't read, they don't capitalize the letter "i" and when we need to post thing in the discussion area, like analyzing a news article, they end their posts with things like, "Right on, Star. Right on." -- This is a reference to a Star Jones quote in their article.

ANYWAYS. The real reason I bring this up is because it seems these students don't read anything thoroughly. I say this because of these two examples:

1. We had to analyze news sources and their credibility. While I am and avid New York Post reader and love the gossip it provides, I know it lacks real credibility, so when I read things on there, I explained that I often follow up with other sources if I am really interested in it. Well, before I could blink, about four students had responded to my post with, "WOW! I had no idea the New York Times was not a credible source!" I became irritable and responded to all of them with a simple, I said the POST, not the TIMES. Argh!
2. My real moment of insanity with them came today though. We're now on our third news article and we were instructed to do a "profile" about someone that we think is interesting or could have an interesting story. I chose my dad, the veterinarian. Here is what I posted to the class: 

I have several veterinarians in my family, mostly in lab animal practice. I'd like to reach out to one of them to discuss how they got into veterinary sciences, why they chose lab animal research over opening their own practice and about what their experience has been like. Lab animal science can also be controversial, especially with groups like PETA and I'd like to get some first hand experiences with what they've dealt with, backlash they may have faced and thoughts on PETA from the perspective of someone who uses animals to save human lives.

And here, are the two responses I got to my brainstorming session:

Interesting idea! I am a big meat eater just curious how are you going to bring the community into your story?

- Christopher

and

Lindsay!

I think that's a wonderful idea. I'm a vegetarian so it's always interesting to hear about other vegetarians reasons for going meatless!

Yup. They both thought I said VEGETARIAN, not VETERINARIAN. However, HOW HOW HOW did they get to that? I mean, I go into detail! I talk about veterinary sciences, PETA, lab animal research! So, HOW??? I just am baffled and I was so annoyed and did not want to flip my lid, so I simply responded to both of them: I actually said veterinarian, not vegetarian. That's it. One of my friends informed me that this is in fact why teachers drink -- situations like this. I can only wonder what my professor is thinking right now.

So, that is that. That is what I'm working with. Yup, enough to make you go brain dead in the middle of the day.

On that note, I'll wrap this up and keep it to this for tonight. We're attending a wedding tomorrow night and Mom and Nana are visiting on Saturday while Brandon is at a day long bachelor party in the city. So, toodles for now and hopefully for not as long as the last time I said that!

L

Sunday Round-Up

We got the car!!! I never thought that I would be so excited to trade in two cars and go down to a one car family, but I have also never owned BRAND new car. It really is a nice car, the ride is awesome. it is roomy in the front and back seat. I don't think the trunk is quite as big as we thought it was, but its not the end of the world. I think that eventually we will get a vinyl, waterproof luggage carrier for the roof since we have roof bars, so that is an added bonus.

Here it is!

There Brandon is inspecting the vehicle. We managed to also pick it up on a rainy day, which as usual was just lovely.

Here it is parked on our street. I definitely went out to see it and take a whiff of "new car smell."

And my keys! I finally have a key fob again to open my doors while I walk up to my car. My Acura one ended up in the bottom of a storm drain quite some time ago...

Hmm, what else went on this week? A heat wave hit our city and it was about 97 degrees at 2:00p in the afternoon on Thursday. That was lovely and made me really look forward to my 7:00p soccer game with no subs AND short on players. Fortunately, the other team only had one girl so we actually ended up playing evenly at 6v6 on the field. We won and it was brutally hot, I got a huge blister on the bottom of my foot and 2 days later my body is still sore. I've realized this is what happens the older you get -- you're not so sore 1 day post work out, but 2 days post work out, thats what you feel the burn!!

In other news, I went to CVS one day this week for a Redbull before work and ended up with a 2 liter bottle of soda and some straws also. My total came to $5.27 and I remembered that I had a $5.00 coupon. I wasn't sure the store's policy, so I swiped and WHAT DO YOU KNOW! I felt like an extreme couponer.

I spent my Friday lunch galavanting around Union Square just doing some browsing. I found this gem at Burlington Coat Factory and I'm almost kicking myself for not picking one of them up because I think the style is very flattering...

In sort of Debbie Downer news, we had to jet up to Scranton on Saturday to bury my Grandfather. He passed away in January, but the ground was too hard at that time, so the burial was done this weekend. I have mixed emotions about the way that this all played out -- to some extent, I know that it dragged the grieving process out must longer than most people have to, but to some extent, it perhaps made things easier, or as easier as it can get to lose someone so near and dear to you. I almost always have had the mentality that all things happen for a reason and part of me believes that we couldn't bury him in January because we were all meant to be together again. I love getting to see everyone, even if the occasion is a somber one, we are a close family and we all know just how to support each other.

Perhaps one of the highlights of these little reunions is getting to see our youngest cousin Lizzie. While seeing all of our cousins is a great time, there is just something about a toddler that everyone gravitates toward. She is a little spitfire ball of energy and just before the luncheon ended, she snuck out of it, ran out to the wedding going on on the patio and was found by Brandon and Nicole (her mom) under a cocktail table. That little devil! Here are the best pics that I could get of her!

It basically took me tickling her to get her to take her hands out of her mouth for the picture and also to smile! She was being shy to start.

While Brandon and I will have kids in our own time, it is totally fun to watch him interact with her. She is such a funny little kid and he has such a good time goofing off with her and doing funny things that kids love. It makes me smile and warms my heart to know that he will -- when the time is right!! -- be an awesome father some day.

And on that note, it is almost time to start Real Housewives of NJ! Yippee for another new season of Housewives!

xo

- from a normal Jersey Housewife...sort of? 

Trade-In Tuesday (Almost!!)

Woo hoo! It is Memorial Day, we're hanging here on the couch watching the Flying V....ok, get your minds out of the gutter people, the classic "Mighty Ducks" is on and who doesn't love watching Pacy...I mean Charlie turning Gordon into a father figure, Banks finally being accepted by the team and Fulton making the game winning shot. QUACK!

Ok, enough about that. This past weekend, Brandon and I took our first major husband-wife plunge and BOUGHT A NEW CAR! Here is a peek at what our new little whip looks like. I will be sure to get "new car" pictures once we pick it up tomorrow night (now the title is making sense??).

We went with the Jeep Patriot Sport, which is their lowest model but still offers the 4WD we wanted, it has the "power group" upgrade which means we have power windows and locks instead of manual (funny to think cars are even still made with crank windows) and of course some other nice features like Sirius XM Radio for a year, Bluetooth activation and a nice big trunk. One thing I am most looking forward to is letting our dogs ride in the trunk and not trash the rest of the car.

I am most looking forward to going down to one car. We've toyed with the idea for quite some time now of getting rid of both cars and getting one new one, especially since I work in the city five days a week and use a car roughly one weekend day. I was always the one to bring it up and generally the one to also back out of it, but we finally bit the bullet. I hated the idea of having two car payments since my car was not paid off and this way is going to save us not only that, but the insurance on the other car and many other things. I think we're going to be able to work it out quite fine and I am looking forward to saving that extra money!

So, that was our big weekend. Nothing else too crazy this weekend. We had our weigh-ins and B lost a whopping 9.6 lbs this week. Nuts! (I almost hashtagged that...to much Tweeting lately?). We're on to week two and hope we can stay on the wagon like we have been. It is SO much easier to do Weight Watchers together than when I was just doing it myself. Not as easy to cheat when we're both making meals that are good for us!

Check back later this week for some more complete new car pics. I also start my online summer classes this week so I'm about to start getting wicked busy, but I am totally ready to jump right into it!

Ta-ta for now!

xo

L

Oh me, oh my.

Today was....annoying. I decided to sleep in a little later than usual and planned to ride a later train in and just ride the subway to work, but then after I got up and took the dogs out, I realized it was a good temperature out and wanted to walk. So after much hustling, moving my car and a little (lot) of sweating, I actually made it on the 7:30a train when I was shooting for the 7:47a train.

I got into the city  like normal and began my walk to work. Approximately 3 blocks in, I sincerely regretting my decision. It was not just a nice temperature out, it was humid. as. hell. Lets just say that I had to put my hair up about 5.5 blocks in and after my 1.5 mile walk to work I had to check for pit stains. If this humidity keeps up the odds are good I won't be wearing my hair down one single day this summer to work.

Anyways, my mid-day went well and I was looking forward to my soccer game this evening...until about 4:00 when it was the heaviest downpour I've ever seen (ok, not ever, but it was a lot of rain). Then the thunder and lightening began. I thought for sure the game would be called. Then the rain stopped. Then it started again. And stopped again. So, I stayed after work as planned for a solid 2ish hours, got ready for soccer and hopped on the subway for a lovely 45 minute ride up to Harlem for my 8:00 game. I got off the subway, walked halfway to the field and just before arriving ran into people from the 7:00 game...leaving the field. The games had been cancelled. I checked my phone only to find out that they waited until 7:00 when the first games started to call the games off. Our team found out around 7:15, myself on the other hand, with no service on the subway, found at 7:45. So that was cute.

Well, I got home around 9:00, no big deal, I was over it at that point. Until...I saw Lola and Muppet playing with my mouth guard. Yes, you read that, the dog ate my retainer. It was on my nightstand, I will guarantee you that Lola was the one to initiate this little playtime. I also guarantee you that when dogs find a "new toy" they are far more interested in it than any toy they've owned for the last few months. So, lets just say that the mouthguard wasn't even salvageable (yuck!) and there were in fact pieces of it missing. And mind you, this was no Sports Authority mouthguard. This was dentist-molded-expensive mouthguard. So, you can imagine the mood I was in.

However, now that I've ranted about how "annoying" this day was, I want to shine light on why none of these things truly matter at all. Not even a bit. A few months ago, I heard a song called "Clouds" by a young man named Zach Sobiech. He was 17 years old at the time he wrote it and dying from Osteosarcoma. When he knew he only had so much time left on earth, he made a choice to just live. He  is an amazing inspiration to millions who have heard his story and he makes you realize that really, your bad days just aren't so bad. He inspires you to look at the good things that happened in your day and that the bad things, like frizzy hair, a cancelled soccer game or a dog chewed mouth guard are really, not all that bad.

So, I know that you all have 22 minutes of your life that you will sit goofing around on the computer. Next time you have that 22 minutes, please please please, watch this video and I dare you not to be inspired.

Oklahoma...

Why Weight?

So, I've done Weight Watchers on and off for the last 3ish years or so. It is honestly the only program that I've ever really found to actually work for me that I can still also enjoy life while I'm doing it. It really teaches you a way to eat and gives you a whole new perspective when you're making choices. Last week, I got an email from them that offered 6 months of Weight Watchers for 50% of the cost. This was a deal I couldn't pass up and one that I was hoping I could make a "family" event...

Well, I did it. The husband and I joined WW last Thursday and today we'll go for our first weigh in. I am looking forward to doing this together because as someone who has done it with others in the past, this makes things 10x easier. You influence each other to make better decisions when you're out, what you're doing, etc, and we could both use that. However, in order to prepare for today's weigh in, we basically went on a binge this weekend....

I wanted to make sure that my husband would commit to it with me and so I told him that this weekend, he should get all his last fix's in before we weigh in. In the future, we can still indulge in some of these things, but WW makes you not want to do that and really does help you make better and more informed decisions about what you're eating.

So I am happy to say that this weekend, between my husband and myself, we had: Press 195 -- amazing sandwiches. It sort of reminds me of Lost Dog Cafe down in Arlington which is a-mazing sandwich place with almost anything you can imagine. We also enjoyed a crab cake sandwich and lobster roll from Louie's Oyster Bar and Grille while my mom was visiting me. And B's final meal, what he declared he would absolutely eat this weekend after he told me he would in fact sign up with me...Five Guys. Yep, I'm pretty sure his car still smells like fries this morning. I had myself some black noodles from a Thai food place in town because I'm not a big burger girl..

This afternoon, we will go weigh in and begin this little journey to getting our bikini bodies back...ha! Most importantly though, I am looking forward to having a support system and someone who is working towards a similar goal with me. I think that it will help us both make better decisions, lose some weight and maybe even save some money!!

Not much else to report. We saw The Great Gatsby in 3D last night. It was a good movie, some great details and I really enjoyed that they used modern music to bring it to relate to today's crowd. I would suggest it to others!

Signing off for now! Go Arsenal!!
L

Back in the High Life Again

Some of you who know me may know that I have an odd obsession with Steve Winwood songs. Well, actually, I think its only 2 of them that I really know, but hey, who's counting? In all honesty though, long ago while living at 39 Cameron Avenue, my sister and I owned a boombox, which in the early '90s, was lucky enough to also have a record player on top. This, my friends, is when I was introduced to Steve Winwood with my very own album. Yup, you read that right. I owned a Steve Winwood album. I owned that of course, along with a Tracy Chapman album, Steve Miller Band and The Fraggle Rock theme song. Eclectic taste, huh?

Anyways, all of that above was nearly irrelevant but the song was in my head and I am BACK in New York after four long weekends of not being here. It begins to take a toll on you when you basically live out of suit cases for weeks/weekends. I am glad to be back but must recap on the wonderful vacation to the South with the husband.

We started our adventures in Charleston, SC. We'd been wanting to go there for quite some time, so the wedding we were invited to in Pawley's Island gave us the perfect opportunity for a little getaway. So, here we go, vay-cay through a series of pictures.

We started our trip out at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. Beautiful, lots to see and do. We just wandered the gardens but there are also swamp tours, boat rides and probably much, much more but we were trying to just get our feet wet here, so we stuck to just looking at flowers and water and none of the other interactive experiences.

I asked Brandon to go over on the bridge so I could attempt to get artsy and take a photo from afar. He apparently also took this as a cue to do his ever popular "thinker pose." I think he's a natural, but then again he's my favorite.

 Here we are on the bridge together, taking a nice lovely self portrait. Some nice guy came and took one of us as well, but my arm fat in the photo overwhelms me too much to post it anywhere, so, deal with it. This is it.

I took this picture myself and I happen to think it was the best picture taken the entire trip. I like the colors, the focus, all that jazz. It almost makes me feel like I've learned how to use my fancy camera. Almost.

This little guy was just hanging out at Magnolia Plantation. As some of you may know, though it was never blogged here, I was slightly obsessed with the peacocks in the Royal Palace Gardens in Madrid while on our honeymoon. I was actually so obsessed that I followed them around for a solid 45 minutes until I'm pretty sure one of them just wanted to get rid of me and spread his feathers. I'm also pretty sure that this was would have been much prettier if he's spread his feathers, but I didn't have 45 minutes to spend chasing him around because I was starvin' Marvin at this point and it was time to feed my food baby.

 

This is the Citadel. It is a really amazing and pristine campus. There were several tributes on the campus to fallen soldiers, as well as planes, tanks, and various other war-related pieces.

Then we ate at Hominy Grill. Oh. My. Yum. They had awesome grits, which I ate with virtually every meal I had. I had an awesome biscuit and some eggs. Brandon got the Shrimp and Grits because he'd read about them and all the reviews were spot on. Next time, we'll be sure to lunch here because I hear they have a killer Fried Green Tomato Sandwich and I *loveee* fried green tomatoes.

Other meals we enjoyed while in Charleston and would highly recommend...

1. Magnolia's - This restaurant serves delicious and traditional southern food. The meal was a heavy one, but we balanced it out on night 2 with a lighter meal, so it was all good. This was my birthday dinner from my in-laws, so we had a good time here. We started with Fried Green Tomatoes. These were over grits naturally and had some country ham in them. #amazing...I had the Shellfish over Grits for dinner, because I was obviously trying to float away in a sea of grits. Again, amazing flavors. Brandon had the special, Cashew Crusted Wahoo over a tomato and corn something or other. We finished up with a Blueberry Crisp with lemon ice cream and this resulted in me having to sprinkle pepper on it to make myself stop eating. Ultimately, I'm not really sure you will go wrong with anything you order here, its all a matter of personal preference.
2. Husk - Night 2. Perfect portions. Perfect flavor. Perfect atmosphere. Perfect meal. After devouring dinner on night one, we both declared that we'd like to go a little bit lighter on night 2. We'd made a reservation at Husk on a whim because we'd been recommended it by several people. For those of you that don't know, its apparently really difficult to get a reservation at, but probably because it was just the 2 of us, we managed to find something for 6:15. We started with a ham plate which was #amazeballs and had about 5 different types, some seeded mustard and pickles. Sounds like a weird combo, but oh so good. Dinner consisted of pheasant on my part and two different kinds of pork for B's dish. It was light, flavorful and was spot on for what we wanted. We topped it off with a delicious Strawberry Rhubarb pie dish. 

Bottom line, if you can get reservations at these places, then just do it. Told them I sent you. Or maybe not.

Just a taste of some beautiful Charleston houses that we would very easily and happily move into if ever given the opportunity.

We capped off the week with a little Brandon & Liz Lemon photoshoot, which I do think went swimmingly...wouldn't you agree?

And, here is my boo and I at the wedding. It took place at a beautiful golf course, wonderful weather. The bride and groom looked amazing and the evening was great. We always have an awesome time with Brandon's college buddies and this lived up to our expectations. We're looking forward to doing it again in August for Greg & Meghan's wedding!

Well, there you have it. We're back in the high life again...I guess that could mean we're rejuvenated after our vacation. Take it as you will, but basically, we're back in NY.

Alright, its late, I had a busy night and its time for me to go lay down and get some shut eye!

xo!

L

South-of-the-Border

Well, just thought I'd shoot a quick goodbye to my non-existent readers before my main squeeze and I head on down south to Dixie Land...well, not quite, but we are going South of the Border to South Carolina.

We will be in Charleston from tomorrow to the wee early hours of Friday morning when we head to Pawley's Island for Brandon to golf and me to do...something? I'm thinking of going for a run and then hopefully we can check in early! Either way, I'll find something to do.

Anywho, adios for the next few days, and I wouldn't expect an update until at least Monday at the earliest...but at this point, even that's debatable.

Until next week!
xo!
L

Cinco de Sunday

I'm sitting here waiting for the latest Mad Men to start and thought I'd recap the weekend! On Friday after work I trekked back down to the V-A for Lauren's Last Fling Before the Ring! We had a wine tour planned with some amazing girls. I honestly have the best time hanging out with these ladies and love to get down to VA any chance that I get. Here are some lovely photos from the weekend, which was beautiful!

Lauren, the bride, with Molly and myself on the party bus! Dontcha just love our props?

These ladies go way back and are of course, Team Bride! Here is Beth, Corinn & Erin.

Our beautiful Kelley was shining through and with us all day long. Love these girls to pieces. And don't our Derby hats look fabulous? From left to right: Jenny, myself, Melanie, Molly, Elizabeth, the Bride, Lauren, Kari, Corinn & Nicole.

Lovely Bovi-DeMatteo ladies: Lauren, Corinn, Tina, Vicky & Amanda.

Some more beauties: Lauren, Melanie, Katie & Elizabeth.

Bovi sisters or Charlie's Angels? You decide! Lauren, Amanda & Corinn

The whole group in front of Cana Vineyard. Gorgeous day, gorgeous ladies, gorgeous vineyard!

And of course, a silly one where I thought it'd be a great idea to pick up the bride! 

I love this candid!

And the day was complete with  Corinn posing by her Lamborghini out front...

I also got to visit my lovely college roommate, Jane, this morning at her new place (which she's had almost a year now!). We had a great little breakfast catching up and I hope to see more of her in the future! We're already hoping to plan a little Marymount reunion this summer if we can swing it with everyone else!

On Tuesday, we are off to Charleston until Friday, when we head down to Pawley's Island for the weekend for a wedding. I am looking forward to a vacation, and more importantly, to a fun time with my husband, who I haven't seen much over these last few weeks of traveling!

Toodles!

L

13.1 x 5

Well, I'm back from California. I'm also back from DC. I'm also headed back to DC this weekend. Then I'm headed to Charleston & Pawley's Island next Wednesday through Sunday. Phew!

So, I got back from California last Thursday evening and after asking my boss for Friday off three (3) ( Yes, t-h-r-e-e) times, he finally agreed. So, home I came, unpacked, repacked, packed up laundry and the car and on Friday morning headed out to Jersey, met my mom, packed up her car and headed down to DC. And why, might you ask, did I do all this traveling? Well, my friends, because I'm also crazy enough to sign up for yet another half marathon. Yes, 13. 1 miles. My 5th one. So, here is the recap...

I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC and I have to say, Nike puts on a good race. Myself and three friends entered Nike's lottery back in December as a group, all or nothing, to get into this race. What you might not know is that this race (which has been held in San Francisco as a full and half marathon for a number of years) is nearly twice as much as your normal half marathon, mostly because at the end of the race you're rewarded with an above average race medal in the form of a Tiffany & Co. necklace. Yes, I've finally earned a medal that I will wear for more than 30 minutes after my race!

These two photos are from the race wall at the Nike Georgetown store. The wall read, "We Run DC," and was made up of all of the runners names. The picture on the right is a stitch of our group that ran!

And that of course, is me with my name. I have to say, I am sort of impressed that I look so "alive" given what the 18 hours of travel prior to this consisted of.

On the left, our shoes (clockwise from left: Molly, Corinn, Jenny, me. I know that was some important info). On the right, one of our amazing supporters, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Tanya were up bright and early to support us on the course. I honestly have the best group of girlfriends around. 

All of us just past mile 2. I started in the corral just ahead of the other girls and wore my favorite and most fitting shirt for a 1/2 marathon -- Where the ___ is the finish line? You feel free to fill in the blank.

And, my stitch of the photo above, along with our pretty finisher shirt up top and of course, our Tiffany's necklace. The other side has the race name, date and location on it.

All us finishers at brunch. And of course, one of our cutest fans, Sydney, with the sign she made for us. Like I said, I have some amazing family & friends -- a total of 16 of us went to brunch. They were up early, cheering on our crazy asses, and celebrating our finish over some food and cocktails. What better way to spend a post race morning.

And, my beautiful flowers that mi madre and my sister got me for finishing my race. They are still alive and well and the three of us had a wonderful weekend!

So, that is my photo recap of my weekend 1/2 marathon. I am signed up for the Brooklyn one on the 18th of May, but we'll see if that happens. I had some knee and hip pain during this past one, so I have to see how I feel over the next week or so and then decide where to go from there.

Alright, its late and its my bedtime!

Toodles!

L

West Coast, Left Coast

Last Saturday, I left my heart in NY (in the form of a tray of lasagna & buffalo mac and cheese & a box of Lucky Charms) to head to The Golden State for a work conference. While I love to travel, I have realized that what I love a lot more is traveling with my husband or family. Yes, I've only been gone for  5 days, but when you never really spend more than a weekend apart from your husband, 5 days seems like a lot -- especially with a time difference that can make it hard to connect.

Anywho, I did have a great time while I was out here and was able to network, learn a few things here and there and also experience some very cool things. So, I will explain my trip through a series of pictures from this past week.

I got this awesome new necklace from Bauble Bar. Have I talked about them before? If not, you should all go visit it. Their mission is to provide awesome, fashionable jewelry at reasonable prices. And guess what -- they do! The pretty bib necklace was less than $40 and I also got the gold braided bracelet on my wrist from there. So anyways, stop reading this crap and go check it out!

 Yes, that is Pat Monahan of Train and yes, I was sitting a mere 4 rows from him. I've always liked me some Train, so when FM Global was throwing a free Train Concert during this convention, I obviously  planned to attend. He was charismatic and really had the crowd going and played for just the right amount of time. So, I rocked out to this on Monday night!

 This is made entirely of business cards and there was a guy there building even more buildings out of cards. How crazy is that? There was also a sand castle that was being built at another exhibit, but of course I didn't take a picture of that one...oh well!

 How fun is this dress? This is the champagne girl at Canada night. Enough said.

But probably the best part of the week was the Marsh party at Universal Studios. We hopped in the car and headed over with our broker and when we arrived they had a whole area shut down for us. We wandered around the "London" area of the park, ate, drank, mingled. Then they shuffled us down to some shuttles and drove us through the studio lot down to the Jurassic Park/The Mummy/Transformers area and I rode 2 rides, naturally skipping the roller coaster because my pansy behind doesn't do that sorta thang. I did love the Transformers simulator ride and as you can see, I got a pretty awesome picture with Bumble Bee!

This is me and our broker on a children's quarter ride. Obviously Roger didn't get the memo that the boat was "rocking," but I guess that's ok.

And finally, I can't wait to get back to this little pup I left behind, as well as my other little guy Muppet and my favorite guy, Brandon.

All in all, the conference was great, but I am headed to the airport at 5 am tomorrow in an attempt to fly standby on the 7 am flight. Until next time! (And hopefully a less boringish post).

Toodles.
L