Colette & Evan

Yesterday I went to a wedding. As an actual guest, not the videographer. Which is something in itself, but this wedding was pretty amazing for another reason. When I moved to NYC in July of 2001, I subletted a place with my friend Sarah Lilley for a few months until I found a place of my own. I knew I was going to live with a friend from summer stock, Anne Mannal, and we were hoping to find a third. I put an ad on the Redeemer Classifieds, thinking that I would be less likely to room with a weirdo/psychopath if I found them from a church bulletin board instead of Craig's List. Not always a guarantee there either, but it just felt safer to me.

A girl named Colette responded to my posting. She was moving to NYC from Iowa in September and was willing to live with me and Anne in an apartment she wouldn't see until the day we moved in. So, everything was agreed upon, Anne and I found a great place and we all moved in on Sept 1, 2001. I remember that as of 9/11 we still didn't have cable, so we hooked our TV up to the previous tenant's cable cord that was dangling from the wall, and put the TV on a stack of boxes and were able to get a few channels that could fill us in on everything that happened in the days after, when I refused to leave Queens for a week.

Anne moved to LA a few years after that and we had a succession of roommates come and go in the years that followed, but Colette and I lived together from Sept of 2001 to December of 2007, when I was engaged and moved into the apartment I now share with Geoff (about 2 blocks from the old apartment). Which is kind of amazing, considering that she and I have almost nothing in common. I'm 5'9" and she's maybe 5'2". She would burn incense in her room and I can't stand the stuff. She is a little more "earthy" and eclectic than I am. I don't know that we have ever even bought the same groceries except for maybe milk, and even then, I would always go for skim and I think hers was always whole. I'm definitely a dog person and she would probably prefer a cat. I take showers, she always takes baths. She can deal with getting rid of the mice we would catch in our apartment and I am a COMPLETE chicken in that department. I definitely saw a dead mouse one morning and despite my guilt, I left it right where it was and went to work, hoping and praying (and knowing) that Colette would be able to handle it.

And despite all these differences and more, we have so much respect for each other as people and truly care about one another. She is a very talented playwright. She's wise and open and incredibly smart. She's a jewelry designer. The times that we would sit down and talk were always interesting and rewarding and I think it was living with Colette that truly gave me a sense of what it's like to care about someone that I probably never would have been friends with if we'd met at work or in college. One of the only things we did have in common, besides our faith, (which I guess is how we found each other in the first place) is the fact that neither of us really had an extensive dating history before moving to New York, and certainly were coming to the city as single girls with a lot of married friends. Throughout our time living together, I know we both often felt like we'd probably never meet anyone at all. And then we both did. I was SO excited for Colette when she and Evan met. I'd been dating Geoff for maybe about a year at that point, and it was awesome to see, even just a little bit, the beginnings of their relationship and how she was excited, but cautious. And then yesterday, I went to their wedding.


I just think it's amazing. I never would have dreamed it up for either of us. Thinking back to the girls we were seven years ago, and looking at our lives now, to me it's just an amazing example of trust. Trusting that the road you're on is the road you're meant to be on, even when you can't see around the corner. And even when it seems it's taking you a lot longer to get to mile markers that other people have left in the dust. It just makes me want to take a deep breath every day and remind myself to let go and trust.

True Confessions of an Internet Stalker

I didn't mean to. I'm not quite sure how it happened. And I blame my college roommate Courtney, actually. I read her blog every day (and a bunch of other friends' blogs) on my 10-15 minutes I get to eat lunch at my desk. Yesterday I was reading hers and read a post she did about some old family friends. When they were kids, her parents were friends with a couple who had kids their age and Courtney has reconnected with their daughter Jody. So Courtney did this great post about Jody and how wonderful and inspiring she was (they are both moms of big families) and so I just innocently popped over to the link Courtney provided to Jody's blog and I've been reading it ever since. I mean, literally. I think I read their blog on and off for almost 3 hours yesterday afternoon (in between getting things done at work). And I couldn't wait to get back to work this morning to read some more. I don't even know this woman. But I'm totally stalking her life.

I got sucked in by reading the story of Jody and her husband adopting twin 2 year olds from Sierra Leone and the incredible story of adding them to their family of four boys. It's fascinating to me. And she's very real about it, which I love. She talks about the amazing parts and also is honest about the really hard parts. I think that's why I keep reading. I respect and can relate to that kind of honesty. And think we maybe might be slightly alike in that way. And she must be a photographer of some kind - even if only an amateur one like me (another thing we might have in common) - because her pictures are amazing. Of course it doesn't hurt that her kids are also gorgeous.

It's fascinating how different people's lives are. I'm completely drawn into the world of a woman with 6 children in Iowa because its completely foreign to the world I live in. And hers is fascinating to me. I can't imagine being in her shoes, and yet I can. At any rate, I have to be reading about their family every second. I am doing this at work, mind you. I'm so engrossed in it that I get mad when the phone interrupts me, or my boss interrupts me and actually wants me to do my own job for a second. How dare they! I'm in the middle of reading about the Landers' family vacation to Colordao and how Quincy had a meltdown at the amusement park.

Oh crap. Jody just posted about two of her friends, Amanda and Britlee, BOTH of whom have blogs. Have to go read theirs now. Internet stalking is really hard work, and very time consuming. Gotta get back to it.

And yes, I did include the link to Jody's blog so that some of you can stalk her too (the story of going to Africa to get the kids starts in late May of this year) and I can feel slightly less creepy. But seriously, how could you not read about these kids?! Look at those faces!

Kora

Zeke

It's really weird that I just posted photos of another woman's children on my blog, right? A woman that I don't even know. I did semi- introduce myself in a comment to her on her blog. Does that make it at all better? Oh geez. Still completely weird and psycho and innappropriate, right? Well, fortunately any of you actually reading this know me well enough to know that even if I may be a little weird and occassionally inappropriate, at least I am not actually psycho.

Right? You know that, right?

God, I'm just making it worse...

The Birthday Girl

Today is my mom's birthday. I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for her. Without a doubt, I have the best parents in the world. No offense to any other parents out there reading this, but I'm sorry, my folks could totally take you.

Things I love about my mom:
She always wants everyone to feel welcome and special.
She is everyone's best friend.
She is a great secret keeper.
She lives on an island in Maine and picks berries from her own land and makes them into a cobbler (please!).
She volunteers when no one else will.
She loves you enough to never want you to feel any pressure to be anything other than yourself.
She is wise and understanding and a terrific listener.
She can put a positive spin on almost anything.
We have so much fun together.
She is the perfect hostess.
She is not afraid to talk in funny accents or dance around the kitchen.
She deals with the fact that almost the only time I ever have to talk with her is on my commute to work (which means competing with the noise of passing trains, the loud announcements at the station, and conversations being cut off when the train goes into the tunnel).
She loves and supports her family in what seems to me, a very selfless way.
She is a great example to me of the kind of mom I want to be someday.

Mom I love you so much. I hope you had a lovely birthday.
xoxo
kate

Fancy at the Last Minute

On the same night that I came home to find our completely green kitchen, I got a call from Alison saying that she had two extra party passes for the opening her show that night, and did Geoff and I want to get dressed up and meet her and Stephen downtown at Cipriani for the party. Um. Yes please?

So we met them at the theatre and took the world's longest cab ride downtown. But finally we got there and the party was in full swing.


The ceiling of Cipriani was pretty cool...


We quickly snagged some food and somehow the beverage of the night became champagne. Which I quite enjoyed.


Stephen and I having a "cheers!"


How gorgeous are my two friends? I know everyone is dying over Alison's dress. She was stunning and fancy and the very example of how cool I wish I could be.


The four of us...


I think I must have just told Alison how much champagne I'd had at this point...


Alison taking a picture of me and her friend Dan. Clearly we must not look so good.


Me and Jim Moye. He and I went to rival high schools in southwest Virginia, did community theatre together where he played Curly in Oklahoma (they made him get a perm - SO wish I could dig up pictures) and I did his make up. We also both went to the same college and now are both in New York and he is in Alison's show. I've known him for over 15 years, which is completely wild. It's so fun to be reconnected!


One of my favorite pictures of the night...even though the picture quality itself is dark and grainy, it just really captures the evening, and especially these two. Just fun, friends, celebration, good times. There's nothing like being at a party with friends who know and love you completely. So much so that they (Stephen) are willing to get on a train from Boston to NYC on a THursday afternoon to be your date at opening night, stay with you at the party until you've basically shut it down and then get back on a train for Boston at 3am, and still make it to your 10am meeting on Friday morning. That's real friendship right there. And does Alison look like a 30s movie star or what?


It was a blast, despite not getting home until 230am on a school night. We've been to a ton of opening night parties for Broadway shows in our day, but this may have been the best one. I think it was because I didn't have anything to do with this show, so I didn't have to work at the party. It makes a big difference.

Going green

We took on quite the project this weekend. Now, one wouldn't think that painting a small bathroom and just two walls of a kitchen would take all weekend. Well in our case, one would be wrong.

We decided to paint our kitchen a vibrant shade of green and our bathroom a lovely shade of blue. We'd finally picked out the colors and picked up the paint last weekend, but didn't have time to paint until this weekend. We had a nice morning on Saturday, and set to painting after a late breakfast (yes, you guessed it, bagel sandwiches. And I wonder why I have gained weight since the wedding).

Here is what our kitchen looked like before painting, the view from our living room.



We moved the table, butcher's block, fridge, did all of our taping, and started painting. Here I am sirring the paint. I only include this photo since you can kind of see our new coffee table behind me and I haven't taken a better one yet. Just to give you an idea...


Even after we had both coats on we started to fear that the color was too dark. Geoff disliked it right away, as you can kind of tell from this photo if you look real closely at his face.


I, as usual, took a little longer to make up my mind. I decreed that we would wait and see what it looked like in the sunlight tomorrow, since by this time it was grey outside and getting dark anyway.

We then attacked the bathroom. Geoff was afraid the blue wouldn't look blue, as it was very light and white-looking initially. But, as we've learned from painting the kitchen, paint dries darker than it is when it goes on. So the bathroom turned out quite lovely. As the bathroom was drying, Geoff started to watch the USC/Ohio State game, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He actually did a lot of yelling at the TV, as is usual when people watch football. Mostly positive, except for one bad call by the refs, after which he tore them a new one from the comfort of our living room. I am perfectly used to yelling at the TV during football, as I come from a long line of vocal college football fans ("Oh, he's gone! He's GONE!!" being my dad's favorite as a wide receiver breaks away and eludes tackles on his way to the end zone). It only was slightly problematic on Saturday if I had my back to Geoff or was entering from the other room or something. If I wasn't paying attention to him or the game and he yelled, it slightly scared the pants off me. Gotta stay aware, stay on my toes, always be ready for it. As it was a good game, he kept yelling louder and louder, and I can only imagine what the neighbors thought. Aw, keep 'em guessing...

So with the game over (good game, Trojans!) and the bathroom complete with touch ups and looking sparkly and the perfect shade of blue (still haven't gotten a picture of it in the sunlight, so those will come later), we watched a movie and went to bed FAR too late. Got up Sunday morning to check how our green kitchen was looking. A tad better in the light of day. But still just really green. A very dark, kind of muddy, GREEN green. Like if it were a musical it would be called, "Green! The Musical!" Exclamation points and referring to a musical as "The Musical" in the title, always kind of gives you the idea that you're in for something over the top. Which is not what we were looking for in our kitchen wall color. And this was not even happy over the top... it looked more.... angry/dirty over the top. We ultimately decided it was a bit much. It even was darker and muddier than this picture makes it look.


But, we couldn't do much about it right then, since I had to head off to the the theatre to see a show I helped cast at work, A Man For All Seasons (starring Frank Langella) and Geoff had to get to a film shoot with his friend Tim, but we decided he would pick up some new paint on the way.

After the theatre, I came home, got groceries, dropped off our laundry, picked up some fresh flowers for the house, and organized my bedroom closet before starting on some Turkey Chili Stew for dinner. I'd only chopped the peppers and onions when Geoff came home at 7pm with new paint and the idea that we'd just get it all done tonight. So we took a deep breath, threw the veggies in a zip lock to cook on Tuesday, and dove in. We'd left the tape on from yesterday, fortunately, so we had a bit of a head start. The evening proceeded as follows:

7:30pm - Move furniture, throw down drop cloth, open a couple of coronas and commence painting the primer coat
7:37pm - Am reminded to take off my rings, when a huge glob of primer lands on my engagement ring. Not to worry, it came right off
8:15pm - Geoff breaks broom handle that was attached to roller, permanently leaving part of the broom IN the roller.
8:20pm Geoff leaves for Rite Aid to buy a new broom, I continue painting edges.
8:31pm - Geoff returns from Rite Aid with $5 broom, which he promptly dismantles to use in roller #2
8:33pm - Geoff, clearly not knowing his own strength, breaks roller #2
8:55pm - Primer coat finished, we order dinner. I break down and order waffle fries.
9:10pm - Dinner arrives. We enjoy it, and our second round of beers, while watching the pilot of J.J. Abrams new series, Fringe.
9:22pm - We decide we don't really care for the multiple shots of the man with the see through skin on the show. Slightly disturbing, especially while eating.
9:30pm - Geoff bids me finish my dinner and enjoy the show for a bit while he gets started on the coat of new, lighter, lovelier green.
9:35pm - I watch with approval from the couch as the lighter green already looks MUCH better than Green! The Musical!
9:41pm - I feel sufficiently guilty that Geoff is working while I watch the scary see-through-skin man, and go to join him. (this picture makes it look slightly more yellow in color than it actually is.)


10:04pm - We both have much joy at how much better this color is and how we are almost done, just a few touch ups left
10:27pm - We finish and decide that one coat of green is enough. We celebrate by watching the end of Fringe, and despite the see-through-skin guy, enjoy it. I enjoy seeing NY actors I know in the supporting parts. (Lovely work by Jason Butler Harner and Blair Brown, and Jasika Nicole, who I'm impressed with, as I remember her from her college showcase just a year or so ago).
11:18pm - Go to pull the tape off and all of a sudden the paint comes off with it. In sheets, like wallpaper. Or even easier - like cheap nail polish. Not only our light green coat, but also the dark green AND the white that the room was painted when we move in. We are down to what appears to be plaster? It's a little dusty to the touch.


11:20pm - Um. We stare at it, not knowing quite what to do. Possibly Geoff says a swear word under his breath.
11:22pm - We triage by just pulling the tape off really really slowly everywhere else. Or I do. Geoff pulls the paint off in sheets in the 2 foot section between the corner of the room and the window, floor to ceiling.
11:34pm - we create a cut line to stop the madness of the peeling.
11:38pm - We contemplate having to have the super come look at it and fix it in the morning.
11:40pm - We abandon that idea, shrug our shoulders, throw a coat of primer on the bald patch of wall and follow it up with a coat of the green.
12:05am - We decide that we do in fact need two coats of the green on the rest of the walls that have not peeled off.
12:29am - Still painting
12:35am - Geoff says I have done a "half-cocked" job with the second coat on the section that I started with the roller that he broke earlier. I don't care enough to protest.
12:50pm - I continue to do a "half cocked" job on the trim.
1:00am - Geoff declares that as it is 1am, we are NOT getting up early to work out. Couldn't agree more.
1:20am - We declare the painting finished.
1:25am - I start to pick up the discarded tape and sheets of paint that came off the walls and vow that no matter how it looks when it dries and when we finally take the tape off the ceiling, we will NOT paint the kitchen anymore.
1:45am - Geoff wants to move the furniture back into place. I remind him the paint is not dry yet and go lie down.
1:53am - I give up entirely and go to bed. Geoff is still cleaning.
2:35am - After waking myself up coughing, I walk out to the living room to get my inhaler from my purse and am dazzled by how awesome the kitchen looks. Geoff has cleaned everything up, put all the furniture back and it looks amazing. Amazing. And I love it. And somehow seems worth all the madness.



PS: 12:24pm on Tuesday (2 days later) - I still have paint in my hair.

PPS: 7:02pm on Thursday (4 days later) - I arrive home to find Geoff out on an errand. I call him and he asks me to do him a favor and go into the kitchen. I walk through the pass through from the living room and stare at our pretty green wall and think how nice it looks. I'm still on the phone with him waiting for what this favor is he needs from me. He says he thinks he left something on the wall. I look at the wall, wondering what mess he could have gotten into. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary (and remembering I'm the one who gets into messes), I turn to look behind me and see that he has painted the other two walls in the kitchen while I was at work! We now have a completely green kitchen and I LOVE IT. AND I love my wonderful husband for such an awesome surprise.

Alison Says

Alison says that I should remind people to scroll down below my big treatise on my NYC day for new blog postings. Cause, 'member I just screwed everything up by taking a time out to talk about that day. I would feel more justified reminding people to do so if I had actually posted anything new in a week. Which I haven't. But Alison suggested it, "just in case any of your other friends are idiots like me." Her words. So, scroll down to read the new stuff...

Time Out

Ok, so I know I'm supposed to be finishing up blogging about our honeymoon before blogging about anything else that's happening in real life (or at least that's the rule I have for myself), but I just had such a lovely New York day that I had to write about it. This is going even more against my rules, because I don't even have pictures to go with it. Its fine if some of you stop reading at this point. I'm even posting this with the real date on it. So next time you check back to see if I've blogged more about Florence or Rome (and I promise I will soon), don't forget to scroll down past this post.

The day started with bagel sandwiches from New York Eats and iced coffee from Starbucks while I sat with Geoff on the couch and he watched College Football and I read though old Entertainment Weeklys (I'm way behind). Bagel sandwiches aren't exactly on my diet, but since I'm just getting over being sick (thank you, antibiotics) and Geoff is in the midst of it, we're allowed. Spent a little time this morning running to get drugs and gatorade for poor Geoff who is, even as I type this, shooting a wedding down in Battery Park, despite his aches, chills and sinus pressure. Everyone pray the DayQuil Sinus kicked in.

I left him around 2pm to head into the city for a haircut at the fancy place that specializes in people with curly hair, Devachan. Got off the subway in SoHo and amidst the throng of tourists and shoppers, spotted Christian Siriano, the winner of last season's Project Runway, looking just as fierce and tiny as you'd imagine. I love him and think he is crazy talented. (It's almost more fun for me to spot a Project Runway designer than a movie star at this point). I ducked into the salon and emerged an hour later with some great curls. They did, however, refuse to do my bangs, since they apparently don't believe in any part of a curly-haired person's hair being straight. So picture the bangs a little wonky for the rest of my story.

I headed uptown to meet my best friend Alison for dinner between shows, as she is currently in previews for A Tale of Two Cities on the Broadway (go buy tickets). By the time I get to the theatre, the matinee has already let out and the stage door is swamped, but I run into a few actor friends I know and get caught up chatting so Alison has to come down and fetch me. We go into the theatre and walk up the crazy flights of stairs to her dressing room so she can show me the opening night dress she just bought. Speaking of fierce. On our way out, she walked me onstage to show me the set, (since I'm SUCH a good friend I haven't even seen her show yet), and even though the actor in me has long since passed away, it is still a magical experience to stand on a Broadway stage and look out at the empty theatre. I'm not even ashamed to say that, no matter how much of a theatre geek it makes me seem. It's just really, really cool. Romantic and inspiring and...magical. There, I said it. And I've only done it three different times, even though I've been in NYC for seven years and casting Broadway shows for over half that time. One was when Alison was in Fiddler on the Roof, and now both other times have been for a show in which James Barbour is the lead (the first was Jane Eyre and now, Tale of Two Cities). Maybe he's my lucky charm. I do love him. Or maybe Alison is. They're neck and neck at this point.

We got to dinner, and had one of those amazing conversations that you have with your best friend, especially when you haven't REALLY talk-talked in weeks, where we both cried a little and were reminded of who we really are and left feeling much better about life. Not that anything was even wrong with either of us going into the conversation. But we were so long overdue for a real chat that when Geoff and I had dinner with her and Stephen last weekend, we often left the guys out of the conversation quite by accident. After which Geoff STRONGLY encouraged us to make a date. And we did. And it was good for our souls.

After dinner I walked her back to the theatre for her evening show and then walked up 9th Avenue to meet my co-worker Stephen (different Stephen - who everyone in my life refers to as his nickname "Button", so as not to get my two Stephens confused) who was going to loan me a movie I wanted to watch tonight while Geoff is shooting this wedding. I had my iPod on and that 10 block walk up 9th Avenue was pretty awesome. Walking anywhere in NYC with your iPod on makes you feel like you're in a movie. You've got a great soundtrack, and you're watching those NYC movie montages live and in 3-D around you. The girl in a strapless print dress and spiky red hair hailing a cab. Couples dining al fresco and drinking wine at multiple cool restaurants. The old lady in a straw hat with her groceries. A girl with a pony tail walking her dog, and his expectant look as he waits for her to unlock the door to their building. A bus boy running from the bodega on the corner with a loaf of french bread back into the restaurant where he works, because they've clearly run out of bread. Parking lot attendants in navy blue uniforms watching the girls go by. Tourists (though they rarely make it further west than 8th Ave, another reason that 9th Ave is a much better place to take this walk) discussing the finer points of Phantom of the Opera or Wicked or whatever other brilliant piece of theatre they experienced at the matinee. Guys sitting at a sports bar way too early in the evening. Hot dog vendors making a deal. Three girlfriends emerging from a shop together, laughing. The dancers rehearsing at the Alvin Ailey School. And the amazing photos at the Alvin Ailey building that actually move as you walk past them. Picture all of this going on around you while Bruce Springsteen (Thunder Road), Melissa Etheridge (Breathe) Frou Frou (It's Good to Be in Love), Death Cab For Cutie (Your Heart is an Empty Room), MercyMe (Here With Me) or Kelly Clarkson (Gone) play in surround-sound just for you. It's one of those things that I love about New York. That I can have such a full and vivid and romantic and interesting 10 block walk and feel like I just wrapped a scene from Gossip Girl (if I was far younger and ridiculously good looking) or Sex and the City (though I would have had to be in the Meatpacking District or the Upper West Side and in much more enviable shoes). And no one can even tell what I'm thinking. To them I'm just the girl with the yellow purse and wonky bangs smiling slightly to herself while she listens to her iPod. They don't know that I've just had my own personal movie montage. And I didn't even have to pay $10.50 for it.

Nesting on the Cheap

I couldn't even believe it. After breakfast at our favorite diner, we stopped into Starbucks for coffee (cause the diner doesn't do iced coffee justice) and I happened to notice that there was a moving sale just a block away. They were advertizing coffee table, kitchen table and chairs, two of the top items on our list of things for the apartment. And things that have proved elusive in all our shopping and online searching so far. So we headed over, just to see. I fully expected it to be like all the other furniture you see on Craigs list or that you picture in your head when you think of a moving sale in Queens. I'm thinking, ugly flwoered couches, nasty ornate light colored wooden furniture... Not so! One of the first things we see is practically the PERFECT table for our kitchen. Great color, its in great shape, and there are only three chairs, but that's ok by us. We bought it on the spot for WAY less than we should have. We were so excited we were almost beside ourselves.


We got it home, set it up and promptly tried it with some of our table settings. Did some "staging", as if we were on an HGTV show. Fun!



After finding the kitchen table, the search was still on for a coffee table. Geoff is itching at this point to get all of our purchasing done so that we can be SETTLED. I enjoy shopping around a little more than he does, (and I'm just generally slower to make a decision than most people...like to REALLY weigh all my options). SO we have checked all the usual suspects for coffee tables and have come up empty: Crate & Barrel, Macy's, Bloomindales, Bed Bath & Beyond, The Door Store, Pottery Barn, Target, Bob's Discount Furniture and general online searches. We sorta kinda liked one from Pottery Barn and another that we found online, but weren't crazy about any of them. And then there was Craig's list. We found one that someone in Union Square was selling that was Pottery Barn a few years ago that was perfect. And one day after a shoot, Geoff had the car, went to visit it and brought it home for another steal. Pictures to come in another post...

I love it when a house comes together...

The Bokas' Day Out

We had the BEST day. It was Saturday, there were no weddings to shoot and nothing to keep us from enjoying a summer day in New York. The weather was gorgeous and after several weekends of Geoff mentioning that we should rent bikes, (after loving it so much in Italy), we finally did it. And loved it again.


We finally found a bike shop that still had any rentals available at noon on a Saturday in the summer and high tailed it over there to pick them up. There was a slight moment of crisis when we realized that the woman before us at the store took one of the bikes we had on hold. And we were told there were no more rentals available. But the bike shop just found us another one. Possibly one that actually belonged to somebody else and was in for repairs, but we didn't ask any questions.


After a quick stop by auditions for me (I had to flex those rusty acting muscles and read with an actor), we headed over to the west side of Manhattan and rode south on the bike path by the Hudson River. It was GORGEOUS out.







And it seemed everyone else had the same idea, as it was packed. The bike paths, the benches, the grassy areas, the boardwalk... just tons of people out enjoying the day. Even saw the lady from the bike shop who had taken our bike. This guy though, was one of my favorites.


We passed Chelsea Piers, and hung a left on Christopher Street to ride through the West Village and almost as soon as we did, we saw this adorable little Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. So we stopped for a late lunch. It was SO good. And made for even more of a flashback to Italy.



Me stealing something delicious from Geoff's plate while he takes my picture.


Afterwards we would through the West Village a little more and came upon a street fair on 6th Avenue. We walked our bikes through and saw grilled corn on the cob vendors, jewelry sellers, cotton candy, fresh lemonade, and this really really cool furniture booth from a store where everything looked to be hand carved from whole trees...just some gorgeous and really interesting pieces.

Then we continue east, picking out dream houses in every other brownstone that was painted with colors that I liked.



After making it to 2nd Ave, we spent our last few moments in the bike lane there, just enjoying the breeze and the sights and the people watching. We love bikes. And if Geoff has anything to do with it, we'll be buying some of our own as soon as possible.

Our Love Plant

What nearly no one knows is that for our wedding favors, we potted a bunch of basil in these cute little silver galvanized buckets, because (according to what I read online), herbs represent things (who decides that, I wonder?) and basil represents love.

So my mom and her friend (and maid of honor in her wedding) Ginny potted all this basil, we put cute little stakes in each pot, and around that, looped everyone's name tag for the reception with table assignments. And it was two names to a bucket, one per couple...also keeping with the "love" theme.

No one would know this however, because of Wedding Day Rain Storm #1 ripped through just before the ceremony and destroyed them all. Fortunately, there is a silver lining here. My mom, Liz (my new sister-in-law), and Liz's mom salvaged as much of the basil as they could and nurtured it while we were galavanting around Europe. Liz planted some in her planters, which was growing beautifully when we were there for our mini pool party with Carla and Alison. And Liz set aside three buckets for Geoff and I to take back to NYC. After a month in those tiny buckets, they were looking a little sickly, so I repotted them and brought them back to live on our kitchen window sill. Don't they look pretty?


I've always wanted my own herb garden, and feel this is an excellent start. Now I have to just try not to kill it.