New Adventures

Life circumstances have changed, and I'm writing somewhere new! Come on over and say hi! :-) www.shadesofkristen.blogspot.com

Bittersweet Work Changes

I don't talk about work that much, but I mentioned it yesterday, and there are some big changes going on at the moment. I work in telecommunications as a Project Consultant. I love my job, but part of what makes it so lovable is the people that I get to work with every single day. Y'all. They are fantastic. The particular channel I'm in is spread all over the US, but there are five of us in the same office and we all sit right next to each other, and have grown very close over the years that we've worked together. There are two girls in particular who, in no exaggeration, have become some of my very best friends - Miranda and Emily. We are absolutely inseparable, and have been for years.

Have you guys ever heard of 212 Degrees? It's a book about going the extra degree, and at a recent work summit, we covered it. Although it was work based, we talked quite a bit about applying it in our personal lives as well, and one of our leaders posed the question "who is your 212 person?" - in other words, who always goes the extra degree. Without hesitation, these two girls popped in my head, and when I was telling them later, I got really emotional, because they mean so very much to me.

I tell them everything - and they've been super close to my baby journey since we met. I remember before Miranda and I were even very close, she found out what a bad appointment I had with my RE, and she walked over and gave me a big bear hug as soon as I got back to the office. One of those little acts of kindness that I've never forgotten - and honestly, one of the things that began to develop our friendship. They know every doctors appointment and they count down with me, they let me whine if I need to and just listen, and they are super supportive of any decision that I make (even if that decision is to take a break). Miranda just had her first baby, and we were together almost every single day of her pregnancy, and all the time during her maternity leave. Our friendship is just... special.

Having said all of that, Emily's "home" is two hours away. It's where her family, and her husband's family lives, and she's always talked about going back. Well she finally made the leap, and she got the first job she interviewed for. So her last day with our company is next Friday, and I.Am.A.Mess. Obviously it was bound to happen at some point. If it wasn't her, it may have been me, or Miranda, but our little group is breaking up, and I'm struggling so much with the change. On the one hand, I couldn't be happier for Em! I remember when I lived a couple of hours from home right after I got married, and I was counting down the days until I got to go back and be near my family. I know how important it is, and I don't blame her one bit for wanting to go back. But on the other hand, we've seen each other every single day for 4(ish) years, and that's a huge change. Can I just say, thank goodness for unlimited texting?! As much as we see each other, we still text all the time, so I can only imagine how much that will increase!

The good news is, that she's just a couple hours away, so it's going to be super easy to drive up on a Saturday morning and spend the day, and I imagine that will happen often. But still, my friend is leaving, and I am sad.

Fall!

Today is the first official day of my very favorite season! I've so been looking forward to the crisp cool air, sweaters, scarves, and all of the leaves turning. I also *love* driving to work in the morning and smelling wood burning (for all you city folk, that's what happens in the country...)

I'm on a mission to make every pumpkin recipe that I can find, and so I thought today was a perfect opportunity to try my very first one. I decided to go with pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and they were amazing! No, really. The recipe looks a little intimidating, but it really wasn't bad. I did all the prep work on Friday and then just popped them in the oven when I woke up.

I found the recipe here: http://pinterest.com/pin/171488698282306399/

Give them a try!

NYC - Part Three

Monday was our final full day in NYC (sadly!). We started the day at the Rockefeller Center for breakfast. We found a Dean & Deluca, and I got a yogurt berry muffin and an iced chai tea.

Then it was onto 5th Avenue! I've been waiting for 5th Avenue for YEARS, and it was magical! Every high end store you can think of, all with suited doormen waiting to escort you into their store.

(which, by the way, makes you feel like a hot mess when you're in shorts, a tshirt, tennis shoes, AND you look like a drowned rat because you got caught in the rain. just sayin'....)

There was one store in particular that I was dying to see...

(if you listen quietly, you can hear angels singing above me)

Breakfast At Tiffanys is my favorite movie, and over the years, Josh has given me several gifts with that beautiful blue box, so I couldn't wait to see. Did you know that Tiffany's is SIX stories?! Ummm YES. It is. They have the most stunning collection of jewelry that you can imagine, and I would love to go back and buy something! This trip was quite budgeted, so no jewelry for me this time, haha.

After that, we decided to do lunch at Forty Carrots in Bloomingdales. It's a restaurant on the bedding floor! We waited about an hour to get in, but it was worth the wait for sure. I got a chicken salad sandwich on cranberry walnut bread, and a side salad. And almost all of their entrees come with their famous frozen yogurt. I'm a froyo pro, so although I was excited about it, I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary. Oh my goodness - this stuff is heaven! I'm telling you, if you go to NYC and do nothing else, at the very least go get some yogurt from Forty Carrots. It was delicious! I don't know how they do it, but it was unlike anything that I've tasted before. Kindof whipped and very creamy and just amazing. And trust me on this, you want to get the plain. I know that goes against everything you'd think, but you'll have to take my word for it.

After lunch, we headed over to FAO Schwarz. Three levels of toys - I'M IN! I must admit, the princess section was my favorite!

FAO is right next to Central Park, and Emily's dad had told us about this bike tour through CP that he did. He said it was pretty easy to talk the guys down and recommended that we try. We were approached almost immediately from a very handsome man who looked Italian offering us a ride. We talked him down to $60 total, and decided to go! There were 3 stops on the tour and I'm so very glad that we did it. There was so much of CP that was way further in than we would have walked, plus he was able to tell us about all the TV shows and movies that had been filmed there. And he held all of our bags while he took pictures of us. Best guide ever.

After Central Park, we were hungry, and we'd found out about a hole-in-the-wall burger joint in the Parker Meridian hotel. We went in, and it was a little scary, haha. They only make burgers, and you can only pay with cash. The sign said if you didn't know what you want when it was your turn then you would go to the back of the line. Fortunately, when we went, there was no line, because we both took our time! We each got a cheeseburger, and I'm not even lying, it was one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. Don't let the walls fool you.

We'd heard about a place called Printon that had yogurt similar to Forty Carrots, so we decided to go get some dessert!

(yes, we ate yogurt twice in one day. don't judge me)

That pretty much wrapped up our "fun" trip. The next day, we slept in, grabbed a very yummy breakfast at Blue Fin (the same place we ate a couple days before) and then hopped the train to Morristown, New Jersey. Our work summit was Wednesday and Thursday, and it was really, really fun, too. We had some wonderful speakers, and I definitely had some take aways that I think will most definitely help me in my career, and in my personal life, too even. We learned quite a bit about personalities and perceptions. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty non-stop, and I got back home a little after 10 PM on Thursday night.

Let's just say my weekend involved heavy amounts of sleep!!!!

I'm so glad I got to tell you all about NYC! I would definitely recommend it - it was tons of fun, and I cannot wait to go back!

NYC - Part Two!

Sunday was our first full day in the city. We'd gotten tickets to the 9/11 Memorial in advance so after we got ready that was the first place we went. The first thing we saw, before we even got in, was the new Trade Center going up. It's beautiful.

Once inside, there were two large fountains, and a museum in the middle (which, unfortunately, isn't open yet). The two fountains are in the footprint of the original two Trade Centers. You can't see it in this picture, but engraved in the stone are the names of people who passed away in the attacks. The picture doesn't really capture the magnitude of the fountain, but it's very, very big.

We met a cop once inside, and he was super nice! I guess he picked up on our Southern accents and started talking to us, haha! We talked to him for a good fifteen minutes and he told us some places that we should go, and then let us take a picture with him. Always good to have an NYPD friend, no?

After that, we decided to visit Chinatown and Little Italy. We walked that direction, and hit Chinatown first.

It was....not my favorite. It was very hectic, and every step you take someone is yelling at you to buy something. There are food vendors all along the sidewalks, and it's a little shoulder to shoulder trying to navigate. The one thing that I was excited about was finding a really great knockoff bag. Having known quite a few people who have bought fantastic bags from Chinatown, I knew that the "good" bags are generally located in the backrooms of shops, and that you have to do a little persuading to get back there. We went into several shops, and couldn't find any good bags or anyone who even offered to let us into a back room. As we were leaving one of the shops a lady grabbed us and asked if we wanted "the good bags". Of course we said yes, and she pointed us to a different shop across the street and then hopped on her phone to let them know we were coming. We get in, and the lady pushes open the wall. No, really, the wall opened! We were so excited! I was actually standing a little ways back, so Emily got the first look in, and I could see that she was freaked out, although I couldn't imagine why. I walked over, and the door opens to a long staircase leading into a very dimly lit basement with no visible bags. I'm ashamed to say that I even hesitated, but I really wanted a bag. Common sense eventually kicked in though, and we told her that we didn't want to go down. She got kindof irritated and said that there were other customers down there, but ya'll, there was NO noise coming from that basement! If there were other customers down there, then they were probably bound and gagged. Emily thought we would have been sold into slavery, hahaha. We hightailed it out of there, and decided that we were done with Chinatown.

Little Italy was up next, and I loved it there! It was charming! The streets were colorful and lined with Italian restaurants and bakeries.We decided to stop for lunch, and ate at this beautiful restaurant with exposed brick and lots of sunshine!

Although I would have loved some yummy pasta, I knew we'd be walking for a few more hours, so we both went with a roasted chicken salad. It was perfect, and absolutely delicious!

Next, we walked through SoHo and Greenwich Village. SoHo is definitely my very favorite part of the city, and if I were going to live there, this is the area I'd want to be in. We saw lots of the classic tree lined streets, and it was a little less touristy, and way more peaceful. We hit up H&M for some shopping, and I scored a navy and white striped sweater, and a black lace cami for $24! Makes me so very sad we don't have any near where I live (although my wallet probably appreciates that).

We'd spent the entire day on our feet and towards dinner time we got really tired and decided that we didn't want to shower and get ready again for dinner. So instead, we picked up dinner at a place called Blue Fin, and headed back to the hotel to eat in our pajamas and catch Big Brother. I got the crispy skinned salmon, with a shrimp and asparagus risotto. For dessert, we decided to share a piece of salted caramel cake. And because we're classy, we chilled some wine in our bathroom sink!

Stay tuned for Part Three tomorrow!

NYC - Part One

Guess what ya'll?! This Southern girl just got back from New York City!!! It was sooo much fun!

I found out a couple of months ago that I would be traveling to the Mothership (aka my work headquarters) in Basking Ridge, New Jersey for a summit for work the last week of August. My work girlfriend, Emily, and I decided that since we had a free flight, we'd head to the city for a few days. The summit was Wednesday and Thursday, so we actually flew out early Saturday morning, and didn't head into Jersey until Tuesday afternoon.

We flew into Newark airport, and decided that we'd rather not navigate the train with luggage on a Saturday, so we cabbed into the city. I was completely overwhelmed! I've never been to NYC, but of course I've seen it in movies and pictures. Those don't do it justice though. We stayed in Times Square at The Milford Plaza, which was a fantastic little hotel.

It was relatively inexpensive (comparably speaking) and we knew we really wouldn't need to spend too much time there. Our room was mostly white, with a bright yellow wall. It was very fun. We shared a queen sized bed, because in NYC, you pay more money for an additional bed. Maybe elsewhere, too, but I've never noticed.

We had decided that it would be ideal to see a show Saturday night, but we wanted to hit up the TKTS booth to see if we could score some half priced tickets to a musical. As soon as we dropped our stuff off, we started walking to Times Square. We grabbed lunch at a yummy place called Juniors, and then headed over to get into line. Let me tell you, my first glance at Times Square was lengthy. I spun all the way around very slowly with my mouth hanging open. I tried to get some pictures, but seriously, they don't do it justice. There's so much energy!

We ended up getting half priced tickets to Mary Poppins (which was our first choice) so we headed back to the hotel to doll up. Fortunately Broadway was right around the corner, so we walked that way. We found an Italian place called Trattoria Trecolori for supper. We sat at the bar an ordered a caprese appetizer and an antipasti appetizer with some wine. So delish! We also got a picture with our very funny Italian waiter. Look at that cheesy grin!

 

 

The show was in this amazing old theater, and we had very close seats. The play was absolutely fantastic! Of course, I knew most of the songs, and we sang along almost the entire time, haha.

 

The show didn't start until 8 PM, and it was several hours, so we headed to the hotel after that to get some sleep.

The next day was crammed full of fun stuff, but I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! :-)

Stay tuned!!!

Updates and Chick-Fil-A

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers for our family. My stepmom is doing so much better! She's currently in a rehab hospital, where she'll stay for another 6 weeks. She does therapy 3-4 times a day there, and she's getting better every day. The doctors said that they expect she'll be able to go back to her job in a couple of months. Fortunately, she's with a company that's working with her and holding her job until she is able to return. We're so thankful that the stroke was minor, and counting our blessings every day!
Having said that, can I brain dump?

I'm so tired of hearing about Chick-Fil-A. Seriously. Oh my goodness, they have an opinion! Heaven forbid someone have an opinion that isn't the same as yours! (I hope you can sense the sarcasm here) People, particularly on my Facebook feed it seems, are SO fired up. I've got one group who is vowing to eat there as often as they can, one group who is vowing to never return, and then there is the group that I fall into of who cares. It's their right to have an opinion, even if it is different than yours. Just like, it's your right to have an opinion even if it's different than theirs. I mean, isn't this grown up adult life? People have different opinions. Let's agree to disagree, be thankful we live in a country where people are able to have different opinions, and quit talking about it (it's ironic that I posted that after I've spent a paragraph talking about it, no?) And me? I'm going to continue to eat there because they have good chicken.

Ditto for politics. Sheesh.

(I am sensing that the politics comment won't end there. Closer to November when I'm ready to pull my hair out, then I'm sure I'll devote a post to my Facebook annoyances during an election year. I'll be especially annoyed since I can't seem to determine if I'm a really liberal conservative or a really conservative liberal...)