Slacker

Well, I'm sitting in Logan Airport, waiting to return to NYC after a week in Boston working at the Camper store here (yes, only a week this time around!!) Just got off the phone with Sara and realized that I need to update my blog. I'll spend some time this week adding some back-dated posts, and hopefully will keep up with posts in the future.

9/11 Towers of Light Tribute

Last night I tried to get some pictures of the Towers of Light tribute. I had to sneak onto the water front terrace of this Italian restaurant in my neighborhood to get some shots. The pictures looked good on my little camera screen, but, as I expected, they turned out pretty blurry without a tripod or a good support.

Awesome Sunset on the Flatiron Building

Spain, Again!

Ok, my trip to Spain wasn't as exciting as my adventures there last year (I only went for about five days). I spent most of the time with work people, which was fun because the trip is like a family reunion with the managers from around the world. I need to work on my Spanish because most of the Italians and Spanish people who work in the shops don't know English-- we know eachother but it is difficult to communicate. The worst part about the trip was the hangover I had on Thursday for my flight home. Let's just say I'll be more careful about eating enough food and drinking in moderation next year (as if I'll remember). Some visual highlights:

Una Fiesta in a little town outside of Inca, Mallorca



Nancy, my boss from when I was in Chicago, and me



Bernd, the manager from Frankfurt, and me



Gianni, the manager of the Rome store at the Spanish Steps, and me



Laura and me


Me and Ruben, the area manager for Madrid. Ruben visited us in NYC two weeks ago and is a lot of fun (we call him Mango)



Andrew, the manager from Dublin, and me


Joe and Rebecca, from London. Heather from San Francisco, me, and Ana, from headquarters in Inca, Mallorca

Celeb Sightings

The pickings have been slim, but Billy Crystal was in the store a couple of weeks ago. Sorry, that's all I got.

Viva Las Vegas

I spent the first days of August in Las Vegas for the WSA convention (basically a shoe orgy). It worked out very well that I was in Vegas that week because I was saved from the horrible heat and humidity of NYC (and most of the country.) I had the opportunity to meet up with my cousin who was in LV with her husband and two other couples. Overall, it was a great experience and a good change from NYC and being in the store. Here are a few pictures from the wonderfully fake Vegas:

I was just wondering what happened to Toni Braxton

The Flamingo

The Horrible 80s architecture from Ballys

The Strip, from Ghost Bar, at the Palms

Sugar Sugar

Took this great picture of the Domino Sugar factory by our apartment. This picture was taken from the Wburg Bridge.

HOOKED UP!!!!

I have internet in my apartment, a real internet connection that doesn't time out after a few minutes!!

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore

On Monday, we had a party in my shop for the the King's Cup--a Regatta in Spain. This is the first year there is a second co-sponsor-Camper. Our company designed a new sailing shoe for the race. The party was a lot of fun and it reinforced my decision to move to New York. NYC is the center of our U.S. operation and working here is an awesome opportunity to have an impact in our company. And besides, it was an evening of cute bartenders and free drinks!

Laura and Me at the party with my oversized Camper polo.

Still Alive (after not having air conditioning and internet)

I moved out of the corporate apartment this week. It worked out swimmingly that the heat wave that hit Chicago came east on the day I had to move out of my cushy apartment with very strong air conditioning, to my new apartment with no air (it is with the movers). I also thought I had no internet as my iMac couldn't get online with the wireless base I was trying use (steal). However, I have discovered it works with my laptop, go figure. On the air front, thankfully the heat broke and I can sleep at night. Our apartment stays pretty cool as it is, so it wasn't too horrible!

The Long (and often winding) Road (Part Two)

Our trip to New York went pretty well. The time went by quickly, especially in our nice Buick minivan with iPod connectors and leather seats. Indiana and Ohio were pretty much a boring blur. We got into Matt's mom's house around 1:00 in the morning. It was nice to spend a little time with Matt's mom, despite the power of healthcare attorney and living wills she made us sign (her husband is a lawyer and she is very anal about people having all their legal documents in order). We got on the road in the morning and the rest of the drive was at least more exciting. Once we got into Pennsylvania, the road was quite winding and there were a lot of mountains and tunnel passages. The excitement of the trip came when we were heading into New York City. It was really cool to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time as a New Yorker (although it was really far away). We drove up to the Holland Tunnel, which would take us into the city . . .

As we were waiting at the tunnel entrance, I thought it would be cool to take a couple pictures of the entrance, and then some pictures inside. That was a great idea until we were pulled over by the New Jersey police. The officer had seen me taking pictures and made me erase my camera's pictures of the tunnel. He wanted me to open the back of the van and put the camera away. This, however, was not going to happen as I didn't want the contents of the van to spill on the New Jersey Turnpike. He let me put the camera away and warned they would be watching us on the cameras in the tunnel. We made it through the tunnel, and across Manhattan onto the Williamsburg bridge into Brooklyn. We unpacked, had dinner and made it back to the corporate apartment.

The Long (and often winding) Road (Part One)

Our Journey is complete! I arrived in Chicago late Sunday afternoon at Midway. I was pretty emotional when I landed because the reality of the move finally set in. I felt like I was coming to cut my last official cord to Chicago. When I made it back to the Addison St apartment, I realized there was so much to do. Matt and spent the rest of the evening packing and doing anything we could to get the place in order. A couple friends who live in the hood came over to lend us some moral support (and some DQ Blizzards-thanks Mike and John). We still had a lot to do and we worked until about midnight when gave up and went to bed. After a little sleep, we woke up and got working before the movers showed up at 8:00. Heaven sent us Sara, who helped us pack the mini van to capacity. We finished around 3:45 and hit the road after we dropped off our cable box and modem at RCN.

For the Cheese Lover in You

Just read about this new place in the East Village, sounds great!

http://www.towleroad.com/towleroad/2006/07/nyc_eats_smac.html#more

Madonna (so sad)

So I had plans to go to see Madonna Monday night. My boss had an extra ticket which was awesome because I didn't even try to get tickets because I didn't know when I was going to be in NYC. Got to work on Monday and put a Madonna mix on the sound system before the store opened. As I was doing some work, my boss called: she was on the way to work, but had terrible news. The tickets were for SUNDAY night. We totally missed the concert. Enough said.

Apartment

I've worked the last five days and haven't had much time/energy to write. Thought I'd upload the pics of our apartment.

Two Days Off!!

I had two days off to myself yesterday and today, which was so nice. Because today was supposed to rain all day (which it didn't) I wanted to spend yesterday in Central Park, despite being overcast. I had a wonderful day hanging out on one of the several huge open spaces (I was on the Sheeps Meadow lawn). I had plans to meet my friend Billy for dinner and I had some time to kill by the time I was ready to leave the park. I headed to the new Apple store on 5th Ave which is amazing. Apple basically dug a hole and put an entrance on the street level. As I was heading over to Columbus Circle to meet my friend, who works at the new Time Warner Center, I passed the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South. There was a huge group of people waiting outside the hotel as well as some paparazzi. As I've become celeb crazy living in New York, I thought I should see what the fuss was about: Jessica Simpson was waiting to leave the hotel. I took a very blurry picture, but you can totally make her out. I met Billy and had a great dinner at a Mexican place in Hell's Kitchen. Today I had three goals: go to an art gallery where a guy from my high school was having a solo show, see Hiral, a friend from Loyola, and pick up my new apartment keys. I saw Mathew's showing which was cool, considering I missed his show a few years ago by one day. I ate lunch at the NoHo Star which is a nice place north of where I work (for those who don't know the downtown area, NoHo is a little area north of Houston street. SoHo, where I work, is the area south of Houston). As I was making my way toward the subway to meet Hiral I saw Jeannie Garofalo on the street (Bleeker and Broadway). I was on the phone with Meghan and saw her walk by me. I literally hung up on Meghan, and was following Jeannie down the street, trying to turn on my camera (the batteries were in wrong). I caught up to her and asked her if I could take her picture with me. I met Hiral for a quick drink as I had to pick up my keys for the apartment at five. It was really cool to hang out, if only for a bit, and I will be excited for her to come back to NYC as she is spending the summer in Chicago.

Pride Sunday Re-cap

Well, yesterday was a long day at work. We had to do inventory which in the Chicago shop takes about an hour. Inventory in New York took until 1:00 a.m. last night. Needless to say, I didn't have time or energy to write about the Pride Parade. (I also missed Anthony Michael Hall who was in the store when I was on my lunch break).

For starters, the New York parade is much more wide open, unlike the Chicago parade where there are tons of people mashed onto the sidewalks, we didn't have to worry about finding space on the edge of the route. Hillary Clinton was walking with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which was pretty cool. Other than that, there wasn't anything too exciting at New York's parade. (Maybe just a few more crazy costumes on people who seem to just want to walk in the parade and not be with a particular group or float) We poured various types of alcohol into water bottles, went to Chipotle and got large cups of water, and mixed our drinks on the sidewalk. (at one point we sent people back to Chipotle to get some food). The parade took about five hours and as usual, we drank the whole time. I was pretty tired and drunk by about 5:30 and I had a really bad headache. We went back to Spiker's friend Jill's place and I almost fell asleep. We had a fun day, but with all the events of the week (apartment hunting, starting a new job, etc) I was so tired that it was nice to go back to the apartment and spend the night with Matt before he had to go back to Chicago for work.

Correction

Matt saw Jay from Project Runway, not Jai from Queer Eye (although Spiker and his friends went to the Roxy on Saturday night and saw Carson).

Sweet (Tall) Home Chicago

Interesting article about skyscrapers in Chicago
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/24/D8IENO980.html

Prince Street

There are two really cool shops across the street from my work.

The first is the Morrison Hotel Gallery, which has tons of music photography.

http://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/soho.html

The second store is the Kid Robot store, where Matt and I have begun collecting their "smokin" bunnies

http://www.kidrobot.com/kidpages/nycstore.html