Chinatown garbage day

I saw this pile of random Chinese lanterns and dragons on the sidewalk for garbage pick up in Chinatown today. Interesting, no?




-- Post From My iPhone

Fun with Shutter speeds

Here's some more pictures we took while learning how to use our new camera. Fun! :)

Tricking people into doing things

I recently read an article about a successful program to help smokers quit:

Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking is a savings program offered by the Green Bank of Caraga in Mindanao, Philippines. A would-be nonsmoker opens an account with a minimum balance of one dollar. For six months, the client deposits the amount of money she would otherwise spend on cigarettes into the account. After six months, the client takes a urine test to confirm that she has not smoked recently. If she passes the test, she gets her money back. If she fails the test, the account is closed and the money is donated to a charity. MIT’s Poverty Action Lab found that opening up an account makes those who want to quit 53 percent more likely to achieve their goal. No other antismoking tactic, not even the nicotine patch, appears to be so successful.

Great Idea!

Amazing Drum cover of Lady Gaga's "Telephone"

This kids' talent is unreal!

Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

I very excite! Great success!

My iPhone 4 is out for delivery today! Whoo! Now, before you go judging me like I'm jumping on the bandwagon with all the other Apple freaks, please let me be clear: I still have the original iPhone! It's on the "EDGE" network, which means I basically can't make or receive phone calls ha ha. It drops calls constantly and it overheats even if I'm having a 15 minute conversation- so much that I have to pull it away from my ear and use speakerphone because it's burning me!

I didn't upgrade the last 2 times the iPhone has come out, because I hate getting rid of something when it works perfectly fine. But now my poor little iPhone is on its last leg- it works great for internet, games, and texting, but it freezes constantly and I have to keep it plugged in all day at work because the battery only holds a charge for about an hour. My co-workers laugh at me because I sometimes fake doing CPR compressions on my iPhone because it freezes or shuts off and needs to be brought back to life! Good riddance, right?!

Anyone else getting the iPhone 4? We can face-chat!

Old School banana seat bike

I love this bike I saw in SoHo the other day. Anyone else out there that remembers riding on a banana seat? They were great for learning how to ride a bike because I never needed training wheels. My dad would hold onto the handle on the back and run beside me until I got going! That was a genius invention, right there!

I was born in the 80's, but luckily I had my older brother & sister's hand me down bikes so I didn't miss out on the banana seat experience! Ahh, memories!

While headed to chinatown on Sunday, I walked by this old firehouse. Isn't it just beautiful? Can you just picture the old fire wagons pulled by horses lining up out front?







Look at the intricate detailing around the windows!


-- Posted From My iPhone

seriously?

You can't get your act together with mannequins that aren't missing their appendages? The New York Look store on 5th Ave and 45th has the WORST window displays in this whole city. Seriously, their mannequins look like they've been beaten and hacked with a machete. Check out this mannequin with the missing finger, looking OH so fashionable! And the other mannequin has ONE arm, and the left arm missing. I love the plywood backdrop that highlights the lumpy looking bag on a cheap about-to-fall-over stand. Disaster!

The ridiculous thing is, this store is REALLY expensive! Their price point for most items is about $300-$500 for a blouse and dresses up to $1,000. I just don't get it!

Why aren't people buying more hybrid vehicles?

This makes me furious. And this is terrible. And it's our fault. I'm glad I live in a city where I can take public transportation, recycle, walk to work, and minimize my dependence on oil. But even if you don't live in Manhattan, so can YOU! Why are people STILL buying gas-guzzling trucks and monster SUVs, when hybrid options are available? It makes me want to scream!

Pen Pals

My friend Sarah came up with a brilliant idea at the beginning of 2010 to bring a renaissance to the forgotten art of Pen Pal-ing (is that a word?) She and I have been writing letters back and forth (a minimum of once a month is the rule) and I LOVE the photo booth pics she sent with her last letter. Nice job, guys! :)

A look at Pharmaceutical drugs in America

click to view/enlarge

The Luckiest People On Earth

Check out this compilation of VERY lucky people- the last one is my favorite!

ENJOY!

I guess in case of emergencies...

Here's a fun tutorial on how to wear your man's shirt as a skirt. It actually looks cute! I can see that this might come in handy if, say you are stuck in an elevator and you pee yourself with fright. Kindly ask one of the other elevator occupants if they wouldn't mind giving you their shirt, and TA-DA!

good to know...

Check it out HERE

Trapped!

pic of my nemesis taken from my iPhone

I’ve lived in Manhattan for almost 4 years now, and I am finally feeling like I’m close to passing my “initiation” as an official New Yorker. So far, I’ve been in a bus accident, a cab accident, almost stepped on a dead rat, AND now I get to add one more thing to the list: TRAPPED IN AN ELEVATOR.

On Thursday, I was leaving my office on the 34^th floor. I’ve never been nervous about elevators or small spaces, even though some of my coworkers DREAD the long elevator rides to get to our office. I rode down the elevator to the lobby, said goodnight to the doormen, and as I stepped outside, it started pouring rain. Big raindrops. Bad. So I turned around and headed back into the building to get my umbrella, which I’d left in my office. I took the elevator by myself back up to the 34^th floor, grabbed my umbrella, and went back to the elevators. There are 4 elevator cars for our floor- they are express elevators that go from the 1^st floor straight to the 15^th floor, and then all the way up to the top. I stepped into the elevator cab and pressed the 1^st floor button.

Around the 26^th floor, the elevator cab started shaking. And when I say, “shaking”, I mean violently rattling and making very very scary noises. I got a terrible feeling in my stomach and I was instantly terrified. This isn’t supposed to happen! I grabbed the railings along the sides of the elevator and started to crouch down. After a few seconds of the heavy shaking, the elevator plummeted down. I saw the numbers flashing by: 26,25,24,23,23…just zipping right through. I don’t know why, but the first thing I thought of was that my legs might break if the elevator brakes jammed on suddenly, so I dropped to the floor and sat down as the elevator cab kept falling. After the 15^th floor, you can’t see what floor you’re at anymore, so I had no idea where or when this elevator would stop. I was thinking, “what if I die like this? Will I get knocked unconscious? At least if I die, it would be an interesting story! I hope Dan picks out a GOOD picture of me for when this goes on the news!” Ha! It’s funny the things that flash in your head!

So the elevator stopped. Abruptly, but not violently. Kinda like when you jam on the brakes in your car, and it kinda jerks you a bit. I stood up and started pressing every button I could find. I couldn’t figure out how to get the intercom on, so I pressed the fire alarm button and it started ringing just like the alarms you hear in school fire drills. A voice came on the intercom and I said, “I’m stuck in the elevator!” From there, he told me to relax and they would get me right out. I checked my phone and I had reception so I called my husband and told him. He told me to call 911 but I said that I didn’t want to cause an emergency unless they really can’t get me out.

After 35 minutes, it was getting really hot and I was starting to feel a little panicked. The guy on the intercom came on and said that the car had fallen PAST the lobby, and was in between the lobby and basement level and they couldn’t get the doors open. Great. He said that they had to call a mechanic. Are you serious?!

I started texting my friends so that I could get my mind off of the situation and I wouldn’t feel alone. Thank God I had cell reception! Otherwise, I would have been panicked. I was sitting on the floor, watching the minutes tick by, and my friends kept saying to call 911. I said that I would give it an hour and if the mechanic didn’t show up by then, I was calling the FDNY.

The mechanic showed up right at about the hour point, and he worked on the elevator for another 20 minutes. They told me not to move and be very still (that made me feel even MORE nervous!) They weren’t able to move the car up to the lobby, so they pried open the doors and I saw about 8 men standing there (hoping I wouldn’t sue them, I guess!) Two of the men reached down and pulled me up by the arms to the lobby floor. They asked if I was ok, and I told them all I needed was a martini!

Now I do have a fear of elevators but just crowded elevators. I’m glad I wasn’t trapped with 9 other people- that would have been insane! Today, I waited for the elevator and I let it go without me THREE times because there were too many people in it. I finally was ok getting in with 2 other people, but I was still nervous. The thing is, I can’t ever avoid elevators because I live in a high rise building with 60 floors, and I work in a building with 35! I think the best solution is to always carry a flask with some Belvedere on board…just in case!

Lady Gaga Copied!

I guess I wasn't the only person to notice that Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" sounds just like Ace of Base. This DJ did a mash up of "Don't Turn Around" (a huge hit that takes me back to 6th grade) and Gaga's Aly-aly-andro. Hear the resemblance? It's the SAME SONG!

Little Known secrets about NYC

My new favourite blog is Scouting NY and I especially love THIS POST!

Read it- it's simple and beautiful, and something I would have NEVER known about New York. The author of this blog is a professional film location scout. What a cool job, right? Spend some time looking through the blog - I love the recent post about the abandoned building at 5 Bleeker Street. Unbelievable how a palace like that can go unnoticed for 4 decades.

Even more reasons why I LOVE NEW YORK!

Hell's kitchen flea market

We had a great time with our nieces, Kelsey & Tiffany, this weekend! After dropping them off at the train station to go back to PA, we decided to walk home from 34th st. On the way, we picked through the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market and I thought these old fashioned stamps were amazing! So cool, right? What could I do with these? We thought about buying some, but I don't know what for! Any ideas?






-- Posted From My iPhone

Little Lady...new camera!

I'm so excited with my new toy: a Nikon D5000! This is my first SLR camera, so it's going to take some studying and practice to transition from a point-and-shoot, but I am absolutely loving it!

Of course, I needed a couple of test subjects while I was reading the instruction manual, so my dogs Romeo and Prince were wonderful models for me!

Oddly mesmerizing

The very best moments from the show, COPS. This is gold, people.

YES!! YES!!! YES!!!

Someone finally had the genius idea to designate a lane on the sidewalk for tourists! Brilliant- even though it's a prank, I give it a HUGE high five!

too soon? oh well.

Trying hard

Dan went to bed earlier than me last night, and when was ready to go to sleep, I noticed 2 little boys snuggled up with Papa trying SO hard to be irresistible so that I would let them stay in the bed with us. Sorry, guys- off to your own bed! Gotta give them props for trying, though. It almost worked!

Hello!!!!!

Little Lady is BACK!

If you've been checking in everyday hoping to get an update, and have been greatly dissapointed at the lack of postings, I'm happy to say I'm BACK and life has finally settled down a bit for me to blog again! It's SUMMER (finally) and the city is vibrant and bustling with activity! For memorial day, we flew to Toronto to visit my friend Ben and we had an amazing time. More on that later- I need to get some pictures from Cory, since we only used her camera the whole time.

This past weekend, our friends Joe and Erika and their dog Winston came for the weekend- good times :) This coming weekend, our nieces Kelsey and Tiffany are coming with our GREAT-niece Zoey! Can't wait to spoil all of them! The following weekend, we'll be travelling out to PA to visit Dan's parents and family, and then my sister-in-law and niece are coming from Copenhagen to spend a week with us in NYC! At the end of that week, my brother is flying in from L.A. and we're all driving up to Canada together for my parents' retirement party! It's an exciting summer in store for us and we're loving every minute of it!