Creativity and Ramblings from the heart of NYC and around the World

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Deadline Hit!

I hit the deadline I've been working on today! Phew! The presentation for London next week is done! Yeah!

I also found out about this press hit: Page 172 in December's Marie Claire


My company Holiday party was tonight at Morton's of Chicago. It was a nice setting - but I wasn't in the best place to be there... My mind was elsewhere.

From there...I went to a diner and met Dan (at his request.) It was very good to see him.
No, nothing has changed, we are still broken up...but I got some answers I needed.
I still don't feel like it's meant to be over. Time will tell...

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Wednesday

Tonight I met up with my friend Jason for dinner at Havana Central in Time Square. It really enjoyed the Tamales and Ropa Vieja. Tasty. The glass of Cava was nice too.

Thumb_defaultFrom there we raced over to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to meet up with his coworker to see Spring Awakening. He'd had two extra tickets, one of which I was glad to purchase. Our seats were actually on stage, off to the side. (These stage seats seem to be only available directly at the box office.) An interesting view of the stage. Seated amoungst us were some of the actors. The show? I really enjoyed it. I think I'd like to see it again from another vantage point. CLick on the thumbnail above for a link to a vidoe of one of the songs. Thanks Jason!
Then it was home for a few more hours of work on the catalog. Tick tick tick!

Tuesday

Firstly, is anyone else out there having one heck of a rotten time with Blogger these days? It keeps losing my entries. Grrrr.

I have filled every night this week with something to avoid as much time home alone in tearville as possible.

Tonight Michelle and I journeyed down to St. Marks for a bite at a wonderful Japanese k'bob spot - Yakitori Taisho - YUM! It reminded me of ones I visit in Tokyo. Tasty and affordable to boot. We'll both go back!

From there we dashed to the East 13th Street Theater to see a performance of The Milliner. It was quite good. Beautiful hats and a captivating story.

Finishing the night off? Sure - we went to Cosi to toast some marshmallows for S'mores while sipping peppermint tea and having wonderful conversation (as always.)Thanks for a nice night my friend. Mwah.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Beginnings

I walked into the week hoping to be strong enough for a new beginning. I'm not there yet.
I am lucky to say that I have the best friends a girl could ask for. They call, drag me out of the house...just what's needed. When I'm home alone, I'm in tears more often than not. Still...weeks later, I'm feeling no better than I was 7 weeks ago.
It hurts the same amount. I miss him all the more, not less each day.

He is missing out on some wonderful things in my life...and I say that without ego - I just still believe he'd be happier with me than he is without me.
I know I'd be volumes happier to still have him in my life.

On to happier moments...
Tonight Juliet invited me to join her and her family on an outing to watch her husband perform at the Lincoln Center Winter Festival. Mark is quite a one man band for sure (see photo above to see what I mean!) He plays through Volunteermusic.org, mostly children's music. And the kids -- they had a BALL singing and dancing with him as you see to the right.

I also have wonderful friends across the waters...thank you to my dear team in China that sent me this... a box of wonderful chocolates. They know how sad I am and thought since there are no words that can help, why not add chocolate (all that's missing is bacon.) Thank you my dear friends. I will nick away at the box. I still have no appetite, but there always seems room for a chocolate treat.

Your kindness and thoughtfulness is so very appreciated.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Weekend...whoosh

I took my folks to see Losing Louie down on Broadway on Saturday afternoon. Although the critics had listed it as, well, awful... we quite enjoyed it.

Tonight we tested out the new grill (photo to follow at some point I'm sure!) Thanks to my Dad who lugged it down from New Hampshire (yeah end of season sale AND no sales tax)I have upgraded to a proper grill. My old faithful one had served its time for sure.

Mom and Dad left after an early Sunday breakfast and I moved to the couch. Napped. Cried. Napped. Knit... and then met my friend Linda out to see a film -- Volver. We enjoyed it. Work starts again tomorrow. Time to find some energy.

Friday, November 24, 2006

No Title Fits

Things here have been busy... it's the only way I know how to get by...busy.
When I stop, even for a moment, sadness sets in.

Work:
The photo shoot for my next book (Autumn/Winter 2006) is what I've poured most of my time into.
We shot one day down at the Seaport…



And one day at Trinity Church down on Wall Street…so beautiful!


My new team (Producer, hair/makeup, photographer & team and my old stylist), they were wonderful! Thanks all! I’ve spent that last few days (and the next few ahead) writing all of the text between the pages. It’s going to be the BEST book we’ve ever done.

I just have to finish it by Tuesday…I can’t believe I fly to London in 8 days to present this new line. Where did the fall go?

Knitting…
I finished the tradional family Christmas stocking for my Nephew…with a little help from my boys. Yes, that is all three of them relaxing on me as I sew in the ends. The stocking is a pattern that my Mom made one of for my father, brother, herself and myself back in the 60s and 70s…and I’ve made one now for my Sister-in-law, niece and nephew.
I’ve begun to knit what I hope will be a holiday gift --- if I get it done in time…it’s a surprise.

Thanksgiving I had been planning to be in Oregon for Thanksgiving since July. It’s been a very difficult week. I had no energy to cook for Thanksgiving and took up a dear friend on her invite for my folks and I to join she and her father at his house up in the Bronx. They saved the day. A very nice invite and a lovely meal.

Keeping Busy…Today my folks and I walked over to check out a new LYS named YARNTOPIA a that has opened in my neighborhood. It was a “soft opening” as the store isn’t quite ready (the owner says she thinks 3 weeks more before the place is all a go.) My Yelp review is found here.


Hoping to distract myself further, Jo and Emanuel came over to join us for dinner tonight (I swear a moment before I took teh photo everyone had huge smiles on their faces!!) Jo and Emanuel are both now back from their wedding in Singapore. Congrats!!! Looks like it was a wonderful event! Glad to have you back! We jetted out to see Casino Royale (The new 007 film) after they all enjoyed dinner. The movie…It was pretty good. I liked the new 007 - beautiful eyes.
Tomorrow my folks and I will go to see Losing Louie (a fairly new Broadway show that has gotten mixed reviews...but we got $3 tickets so - how bad can it be?) I’ll let you know how it is.

This week also marks M’s 8th birthday. A celebration I’ve been planning to be a part of since July as well. It saddens me that Dan and M will not be coming to NH for Christmas. M had been so excited at the possibility of having a snowy white Christmas. I had looked forward to sharing it with her.
I have months of plans ahead that I will miss, pass on…or now do alone.

My body seems to be revolting. Both my hip and shoulder have worsened rather than lessened. The hip, it is thought, could be from the spill we had in Bermuda on the moped in August, and the shoulder may be my body trying to make up for the hip. I see an orthopedic surgeon this week.
Although food hasn’t been so much on my mind, I’ve been trying to drink more water and the kidney pain has begun to lessen. Time will tell.

When life gives you lemons I’ve always thought it was time to make lemonade.
Sadly, it still seems I’ve forgotten what the recipe is.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

In bloom...

Two photos of things that made me smile today.

My Abultion that was brought in for the winter is in bloom! Very pretty!

And...
The king of his castle.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Since I can't sit still...

Why not go out. My friend joined me at this months Yelp Elite party at Lea.
I forgot to pull out the camera until I was walking out when we snapped this shot of Sam and I. Sam's the community manager for NYC. Damn he's tall (I've got 5" heels on!) :-)

After the mingle, Allegra and I walked over to Mama Mexico's for a light bite at the bar. (It was much much faster and quieter than the long wait for a table!) The food as always was delicious -- and the company as always was great! Thanks Allegra!

Just when you've heard it all...

What's done is done.
I spent the week returning birthday (for M) gifts (save one which I donated since I'd already inscribed the book) and cancelling Christmas gifts that I had ordered to be custom made for Dan for Christmas. (And lost my damned deposit to boot.)

Today Dan came by to return the rest of my belongings and collect the last few of his and M's.

What was previously written here I have chosen to rewrite...you can find it on a post for November 15th.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Still....
Still reeling from Black Monday. Many thanks to so many of you who have left such kind words.

I heard it once said that you cannot have a great relationship, home and career all at the same time. For a brief time I seemed to have all three. Perhaps down the road I'll be up for going after the trifecta again. I can say that I am blessed with some amazing family and friends - worldwide. Thank you all again...

My good news of the day?
Dem's got the House and Rumsfeld is OUT...
Perhaps there is a positive shift happening...
I'm still waiting for further proof.

Monday, November 06, 2006

BLACK MONDAY
Many thanks to those of you who have offered such nice words both on and off blog.

The decision was made tonight that we are done done.
He had ended it 3 weeks ago, but we continued to be in contact near daily.
We even had a date last week that felt wonderful. Sadly, he sees no future for us.

So now I do what?
In 3 weeks I've lost over 10lbs, days of sleep and my two years past kidney pain has returned.
What do you do when you feel like your legs have been cut off?
Not only have I lost him, but M as well.

I just don't understand.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Some Old Fun with Old Friends

I needed to get out of town and clear my head... and Joe called me with an extra ticket to join he and Shane, two old friends that I've know since elementary school! So, I hopped a plane on Friday night, my brother fetched me from Logan and I spent Friday night and the first part of Saturday with my brother and his family... Including my adorable as ever niece! This is a photo of her from today (I returned today) eatting the yummy squid that my sister-in-law's father made as part of the lunch feast I arrived just in time to enjoy!

Back to Saturday... Joe journeyed to fetch me from my brothers's house and we met Shane back in Portsmouth, NH at Joe's place. What did we do? We went to see a comedy show at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. What a ghost town at this time of year!! Who did we see? Well, knowing my old friends as I do, this was the ideal show to see with them... Artie Shaw and Andrew Dice Clay (being broadcast live on Serious Sattelite Radio on the Howard Stern show.) And for any of you who might recall his version of the Mother Goose Rhymes that were everywhere back in the 90's...that's how he ended his show. Watching my friends was, as always, the funniest part the evening. It's good to see old friends.

From there we headed to Portsmouth Gas Light Co. for a late night pizza and some more chatting. The pizza's quite good there! Definately check them out if you pass through looking for a bite.

We hit Nancy's this morning on the way back to my brother's.
It was good to see the guys - it's been years since we've all been together in one place.
Thanks guys for a nice weekend... now if I can only get back to NYC (my flight has been cancelled and I'm awaiting a much later flight hoping that the delays on the flights ahead don't get in my way!)

Thursday, November 02, 2006

MARIE CLAIRE - November 2006

My PR team is on a ROLL!!
What a great shot of my fedora in this months Marie Claire magazine (pg 158!)



Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Thanks Jennifer!!!

Last night I had a long and way overdue chat and chow with my dear friend (and PR agent) Jennifer at Niko's. The staff tehre didn't rush us as we sat grazing for hours. (Click on Niko's for my Yelp review of the place.)

The photo is from June when Jennifer came over for cooking lesson #1. We made (shown) a whole roast chicken, panzella and a tossed salad with homemade dressing. She recently got the courage up and made the meal for her dear BF who LOVED it!

She's so beautiful inside and out but is a bit camera shy -- thus the balck bar... heck, if it's good enough for Glamour Magazine, it's good enough for me!

So Jennifer - when shall we have lesson #2?