Gifted

Let me just start by saying that today is the coldest day we've had in close to a year. 27 degrees. BRRRR!!! It's strange to have made it this far into winter without being legitimately cold even once. And now...after new years eve (which is usually bone chillingly cold since obviously I don't dress weather-appropriatly) it's cold? Well all right. I suppose I know where my long-johns are.

Ok. Let's get on with it, now that my ranting about the weather is done.

Happy New Year! Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas!

Did you get any good gifts this year? Give any good gifts? I sure did.

BF, being the fantastic BF that he is, reads my blog regularly (by choice, generally) and read my post about Christmas gifts. (As a side-note, I may add, I considered deleting that post because it felt so self indulgent. Boy am I glad I didn't!) So, what did he get me, you ask? Well, this:

The Michael Kors watch I've been coveting for as long as it's existed! (Don't mind the stuff in the background, that's my bedroom, still in the makeover process. Which I should be documenting, I suppose...) I was so happy and surprised and excited when I opened this gift. BF did good. BF did really good.

In addition to this watch, I got something else that I've been adoring from afar for as long as it's existed:

The most beautiful Marc Jacobs bag that ever did exist. I am in love with it. Mom did good too. REALLY good.





Now, as for the things I gave:

BF got these sneakers (and not a moment too soon...his old ones were so so bad) along with some other assorted goodies.


And for my Mom, my Dad and I split this fantastic Barbour coat. She had one years ago and loved it, but along the road of life it got lost in the shuffle. She is notoriously difficult to buy gifts for, (she never likes anything) so this one was excitingly perfect. There was no way she wouldn't like it.
And mostly that proved true, although she was a bit bothered by how much money we spent.

But alas, she loves it. Overall, the holiday's were good to us all this year.

As I part with you today, I'll leave you with this: Our jewy little Christmas tree:

Project I

Last week I began my classes at Fashion Institute of Technology, a.k.a FIT. I'm taking three classes: Drafting, Survey of Interior Design, and Presentation Techniques.

In drafting class, we're learning about what life was like before the invention of a lovely little thing called autoCAD, which is a computer program that assists in creating floor plans, layouts and such. In other words, I am learning how to hand-draft.

Here's my almost finished first project:

To create this, I used vellum, a drafting board, architectural scale, T-square, circular template, lead holder, drafting tape, a steady hand and a LOT of patience.
No idea what any of those things are? Yeah, neither did I until last week.
I still have a couple of squares left to finish, but so far so good.


In other news, it's been raining for three days straight, and the subways are still in service. Maybe...if we give this week of rain a name...Bloomberg will shut everything down again. After Irene we'd be on J, so let's go with...Joan. HEY BLOOMBERG, JOAN IS HERE! LET'S SHUT DOWN THE CITY SO NO ONE GETS WET!

Hello Irene

New York City is officially in Hurricane mode. All of the subways and busses have been shut down in preparation for hurricane Irene, currently a category 1 storm that should be hitting us any time now. Stores are closed, banks, Universities, restaurants, super markets, everything. The few places that remained open either have "X marks the spot" tape across their windows or are completely boarded up on the outside, like the Petco by my parents' apartment.

I want to say that this is a bit drastic, but the storm still hasn't hit. I do think, though, that boarding up to that degree is a bit extreme. After all, this is the Upper West Side we're talking about, not some po-dunk beach town.

Update:
8:35pm- lots of rain, but still no sign of a hurricane...

Sunday, 10:12am- What a monumental overreaction by EVERYONE. 

Daily Outfits?

Today, I came across a website that provides you with outfit options based on your current location and the weather prediction. (via SmartPrettyandAwkward)

This a screen shot I look of it.
Great concept, I do really like it, except...if it's supposed to be 85 degrees and rainy...WHY would I wear leather booties, knee socks, and a blazer??? Why would I wear jeans on 3 out of 5 of the mid-80 degree days??
Wouldn't shorts or a skirt or...anything but jeans make more sense? and really, this is missed Hunter Wellington opportunity.

I think you get wear I'm going with this. Good concept, poorly executed. Rethink your strategy, dailydressme.com, because as of right now, you've missed the mark in a huge way.

Also, I just noticed that Saturday and Monday have the same outfit. Great.

Rainy Day(s)

It has been raining in New York, non-stop, for the past 4 or so days. Yesterday morning, at about 7:30, there was a crack of thunder so startlingly loud that it woke me from a deep sleep and, excuse my language, scared the shit out of me. I'm not generally fearful of lightning and thunder, but this was just ridiculous. Along with the deafening thunder, the sound of the heavy rain pelting against my open window made me feel certain that my room was quickly filling up with water. Why did I leave that window open so wide!?

My room was not filling up with water. My blinds were barely even drizzled on. But in that discombobulated 7:30am moment, death by drowning seemed plausible.

This is a screenshot of the weather forecast for the next week. I took it with my phone about 10 minutes ago. It entails rain, clouds and oh, thunder storms. Fantastic. I'm so excited. The few days prior to this looked exactly the same. I wonder what the rest of next holds in store for us.

As luck would have it, I own a fabulous pair of Hunter Wellington rain boots. I adore these things and wear them often enough to have made them worth the $100 I spent on them. It rains and snows often in New York (if you're not familiar) so they come in handy. Usually, though, we don't get two weeks straight of rain. But, because we are in the midst of it right now, it should come as no surprise that my rain boots have been at BF's house (waaaaay out in Brooklyn) for all of it.

I'm at his house today for the first time in a couple of weeks. We usually opt for my apartment. (To avoid being waaaaay out in Brooklyn). And this is what my sad, lonely, dry, deprived of rain boots looked like this morning:

Sorry boots. But I promise with every ounce of my being that there is plenty of rain ahead in the next week. You shall be worn, and soaked until you make that little squeaky noise you so enjoy making.

Oh, what's that I hear?
Just the sound of the rain starting again.

One Night in Atlantic City

Atlantic City. BF and I went this past saturday. He's an avid poker player and goes there fairly often, but it was my first time ever going, and I was extremely excited about it. Saying that luck was on our side this weekend would be a stretch, but it was a great weekend none the less.

To start with, we figured we'd borrow my parent's car to drive down there. No big deal, I use it all the time, they rarely use it. I called my mom at 8am Saturday morning (while BF was on his way to my house) to run it past her. And, oh, what's that? No? You're going to visit Grandma? Great. No car for us.

But it's ok, we make it to an early bus and get there by noon-ish.

BF usually gets hotel rooms compensated by the casinos since he plays poker there. Not this weekend. And what do you know, the hotel he likes the most is fully booked. Figures. We dole out $350 for a room at Harrah's. I can tell he's not too excited about this. I mean...would you be? 

We check in and go to the room to find this:

And this:

Ok. Maybe it's a little worth it. This hotel room is amazing. Do you see that shower?? And that king size bed??

BF showed me around the city. The boardwalk, the beach, the outlet stores. The weather was a bit gloomy, but it was a nice change of pace to see something other than NYC. And come on, it's Atlantic City!

It was a bit gloomy though, I must say. It was sort of like a watered down version of Las Vegas. All the same stuff, just slightly less...good. The sad underbelly of the casino and gambling world was more apparent here than it is in Vegas. The geriatric men and women sitting at slot machines are a fantastic example of this. So are all the over-weight, under-dressed woman with too much makeup. Ok, maybe they're more tasteless and tacky than anything else, but still.

Anyway.

Late in the evening, after playing in a poker tournament, BF and I went to a craps table and he taught me how to play. It was the quickest $100 I've ever lost. oops.

Soon after that, we headed back to our fantastic room to call it a night. Collectively, we lost more money than we were happy with, and we were drunk on wine from dinner and drinks from the casino cocktail waitresses, so calling it a night seemed like the best plan of action.

The next morning, after a fantastic shower, we packed up our stuff and headed toward the bus back to the city. A few dollars poorer, but a wonderful weekend to show for it. 

All in all, totally worth it.

Goodbye Winter

I live in a small New York City apartment with 2 of my oldest childhood friends. We live in a three bedroom, fifth floor walk up on the Upper West Side, the same neighborhood we all grew up in.
For each perk of living in the City, there is an equally miserable drawback. The one my attention is focused on today is...(drum roll please)...lack of closet space. my hangers are doubled up, my dresses are wrinkled from being cramped so tightly together. And, since it's been winter the whole time we've lived here, (4 months) I have all of my cold weather clothes and not much of my summer wardrobe. The summer clothes are at my parents house. Which means I have to pack up all my winter stuff, lug it on over to my parents place, and exchange it all for summer stuff. Not.Fun.

So un-fun, in fact, that it was clearly a perfect opportunity to sit down and write. And drink coffee. and readjust my curtains. and eat some crackers with hummus. and try on my new swim suit for the fifteenth time. Um...I guess it's time I get started on the closet.

...

10 minutes into the cleaning out of the closet, and i'm being much less picky about what I "might" wear on cool spring days. Usually I have a hard time parting with things, even though technically I'm only parting with them for a season...but how do I know I won't want to wear a black wool sweater in July??? It could happen! Maybe! But i guess, if it does, I can just go get it from my parents house.
And into the bag goes the black wool sweater.

...

2 huge suitcases and an hour and a half later and i'm done! And, may I add, my closet is now color coordinated.

This is the final product (I wish I had taken a "before" photo as well, but...oops, I didn't.)

My newly organized closet

It's a nice feeling to accomplish something that seems daunting. And today was the perfect opportunity for me to get it done.

I work in a restaurant, and have recently switched over to working nights only, as opposed to previously working days only. This leaves me with copious amounts of free time during the day, so while my 2 roommates and most of my other friends are at their 9-5's, I have little to occupy my time with. I'm on week two of this new work schedule, and filling my days with productive activity is proving to be no easy task. So far, I've given myself 3 manicures, watched almost 3 entire seasons of a show called Say Yes to the Dress, and I've gone jogging. A lot. Oh, i've also read samples of about 5 books on my kindle. I have a hard time deciding whether I'll continue to enjoy a book after reading the sample, so more often than not I don't end up purchasing them. I have read the first few chapters of more books than I can even begin to count. I did, however, commit to Tina Fey's book this morning, and shelled out $12.99 for it. Hope it's good.

Well, it seems i've passed a suitable amount of time today. Time to get ready for work.