To Dos for 2010

See ya later 2009 - you sucked a big one! I'm looking ahead to bigger and better things in the teens decade. I just started making a list of things I want to accomplish in the beginning third of this new year:

• Quit drinking booze until March (or maybe just stop doing shots on weekdays)

• Attend a cooking class or two at the Brooklyn Kitchen, so I can pretend to cook something other than pasta

• Learn a little Spanish - hopefully I won't embarrass myself too much while traveling abroad

• Go to Costa Rica in February to volunteer in San Jose for a week - still need to pay for it

• Officially give up eating dirty fast food like McDonalds and Burger King (Chinese food and pizza are still ok though)

• Ween myself off my pricey morning addiction to Starbucks - I don't need a latte a day

• Lose 10lbs so my mom's Wii Fit doesn't say my age should really be 47 years old

• Actually finish one of the many books I've started writing
  

• Run my first half-marathon on March 20th at the National Marathon in DC

More to come...

Help ME, Help YOU!

So I've been thinking lately that I need to fix my karma by doing some good in the world in 2010. I have four travel options right now that I'm mulling over:

Option 1:
Go on a volunteer trip to India with an organization called International Volunteer HQ, the program's web page: IVHQ.

My friend Jenn from Boston went on a trip with IVHQ before and has already booked her trip to Palampur to work with street kids for 2 weeks in late February. You typically stay with host families and works the entire day in an orphanages, teaching English or in day care centers with street children.

My only concern with traveling to India is that I've talked to several people who have had very bad experiences traveling there (especially going to Delhi) and are recommending strongly against it. Also the flight and program costs will be about 2 grand - big dent in my savings account!

Option 2:
Travel to South Africa, with a company called OverlandingAfrica.com on a 14 day camping trip from Cape Town to Durban. According to the website, you can "make a REAL difference" by helping the people of Africa with family planning, environmental projects,
building infrastructure, etc.

Downsides of this trip would traveling alone, which is slightly concerning given that South Africa seems to have a bad reputation for crime. Also I would be camping for 2 weeks in a tent and it costs $1,055 per person for the tour, food and volunteer experience. That doesn't factor in the cost of a flight which would be over a grand.

Option 3:
Take some personal time off to visit my friend Sara from London who will be working in Hong Kong sometime next March.

The obvious negatives are that the flight would be horrendously expensive and take a long time to get there. Plus I wouldn't really be doing any good stuff to help other people, although I would be eating delicious food and exploring China which sounds pretty amazing.

Option 4:
Go on a fun beachy trip with girlfriends in late January to relax and sip fruity cocktails with little pink umbrellas.

Again the negative would be that this trip is completely self-serving and not helping to fix my karma in the slightest. On the other side it would help drastically improve my skin tone. Plus it's a cheap holiday which would be good fun with the girls.

Ughhh too many choices and so little vacation time!

All I Want for Christmas...

Here's my list in case anyone wants to buy me a few prezzies this year:


- North Face black backpack

- Rollerblades (ladies size 9)

- Mini food processor

- Hunter rain boots (in black or green)

- Granny cart

- Ray-Ban sunglasses (aviator style)

- Ikea MALM dresser (med. brown color)

- New job

- Tropical vacation in January

- A puppy


I don't think I'm asking for too much :)


**Update - A new cute boyfriend is going on the list too!

Celebrity Sightings

Since I moved to the big city in June '09, I've seen quite a few famous people milling around the streets of Manhattan. Here's my list starting from the most recent sighting (yesterday morning)...

* Brooke Shields walking her big white dog in front of my Crunch gym on Lafayette st.

* Jude Law attending a premiere on Chrystie street in the Lower East Side (he's gorgeous although a tad short)

* Some guy in a band - 3Oh!3 - at a downtown bar

* Larry David walking his scruffy dog on Broadway early in the morning

* I saw Claire Danes twice! Waiting in line at Cafe Cafe in SoHo and walking up Broadway

* The attractive slightly older newscaster, Dan Abrams, walking down Broadway

* While they were filming 'Date Night' (coming out in 2010), we saw Tina Fey get out of a car

* Robert Pattinson at Gemma restaurant (technically I didn't see his adorableness because Tim forgot to mention that he walked by)

I might have to check out Bar Pitti in the West Village because that seems to be a good celebrity hotspot. Maybe I will finally see one of the Olsen girls and prove to my boss that they really do exist!

Hot Tropical Getaway to...

Next weekend, Tim & I are going to take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and travel down to the southernmost point of the United States. For those not so keen on geography that's Key West baby!

We are scheduled to fly into Fort Lauderdale airport (FLL) courtesy of JetBlue airlines on Saturday Sept. 5th. Hopefully we land in one piece in the afternoon and then head over to the car rental agency to pick up our economical car which will transport us magically to our tropical island. Thanks to Hotwire.com we already booked 2 nights at the not-so-super premium Holiday Inn Key West. Honestly I'm a little disappointed because when we used this discount travel website in the past we have gotten nicer hotels and better locations. This particular hotel has received horrendous reviews on TripAdvisor but does boast a restaurant, an outdoor pool, a spa tub, and a bar/lounge, so that should be all we need to survive. I plan on doing a little bike riding around the island, reading my books on the beach, trying not to get a sunburn, making Timmy eat conch, and going snorkeling with the fishies out by the reef. I'm actually a little trepidatious to book our boat trip beforehand because of the recent weather (read: hurricanes). I just looked on weather.com and the 10 day outlook isn't so good:

Then the road trip continues on Monday, when we head back towards the mainland with a quick stop in Key Largo for one night only. We booked a room at the Marriott Key Largo Bay Beach Resort. I have no idea what there is to do in Key Largo but the hotel is on the waterfront so if the weather is nice we can just sit out and enjoy.

The trip finishes in FLL on Tuesday night when we fly back on JetBlue and are scheduled to arrive in New York by 11pm. Back to normal life on Wednesday Sept. 9th, hopefully with a lot of fun memories, embarrassing pictures and a bit of a sun tan. :)

The Pros & Cons

Things that I like about NYC...

- My Crunch gym in BK is a few blocks away & offers awesome classes
- Being able to bike into work (only takes 30 minutes)
- The variety of things to good things eat
- My neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn
- Living nearby from Prospect Park
- Rooftop dinners and beautiful city views
- Celebrity sightings (like Claire Danes!)
- Walking from Manhattan to Brooklyn
- Timmy

Things not so good about NYC...

- Having to carry groceries/luggage/laundry
- Hot & sweaty subways. Waiting for trains on the weekends
- Working with only 3 other people
- Getting stuck behind slow-ass tourists on Broadway
- Fast pace city life
- Comparing myself daily to super skinny models walking through SoHo
- Expensive meals & drinks in the city
- Feeling the need to constantly buy new clothes to fit in
- Not having a big friend network here
- No Whole Foods in Brooklyn

Should I be living in NYC?

Only until you age out.

Sorry to say it, but you're a temporary New Yorker. Sure, this city is awesome for running around and enjoying your youth, but you came here to work and play hard and plan on jetting at the first signs of crow's feet or when your parents stop financing that party lifestyle of yours. Plus, if you ever decide to settle down and have kids, there's no way you're bringing them up in a studio. Click here for suggestions about how to really enjoy NYC.

This TimeOut quiz knows me well... :)