Land of Sweet Tea

I spent Memorial Day weekend visiting my friend Ashley from Penn State down in Elizabeth City, NC. I took a bus down to Baltimore and spent the night at my friends' place before we hit the road on Friday.

We had a raucous dinner at Applebee's on Friday night, followed by catching up with everyone afterwards. We spent Saturday running around getting ready for the big party that night. The party was a ton of fun - good food, dancing, and meeting the new people in Ashley's E-City life.

PSU and Virginia friends with the birthday girl and her boyfriend Justin

Hammer and Vanilla chilling out after the party

We went down to the Outer Banks on Sunday for a few hours. The beach at Nags Head was really pretty and wasn't overly crowded (though it was tough to find parking). The water was cold, but we all jumped waves for awhile on a perfect beach day. After that, we said goodbye to Sara (back to Tucson) and Laura (staying for a few extra days in OBX).

Steve, Laura, Me, Ashley, Sara, Matt after some good beach time

Matt and Steve and I took back off to Baltimore on Monday. We stopped in Williamsburg, VA to wander for an hour and grab some lunch. It wasn't quite what I was expecting - I thought lots and lots of cobblestones - but it was neat nonetheless.

Governors Palace

Sitting in traffic outside Richmond, we spotted a black lab puppy without a collar sitting on the side of the road. Steve jumped out of the car and picked her up. We shared the backseat back to Baltimore where she got a vet check-up, 14 ticks removed, and scanned for a microchip. No microchip, and efforts to find an owner didn't turn up anything. Matt and Steve found Virginia a new home with several other labs.

Virginia the navigator

Thanks to Mama and Papa Sweeney for hosting a great weekend, and having a fabulous daughter to bring us all together.

Bienvenido a Miami

I spent a few days in Miami last week for work. The days were spent in a conference room, but the evenings were spent eating delicious food and imbibing a few adult beverages.

On Friday, I took off to South Beach to spend an extra day and a half on the beach. I met up with my friend Joanna from Penn State, and her friend from home, Erin. We went to dinner at Joe's Stone Crab for dinner. Tasty stone crab (my first), fried green tomatoes, and key lime pie. Oh, and Bill Clinton was there.



I spent Saturday on the beach, and wandering around South Beach. I got some sun, and came home with some awkward tan lines, and a further appreciation of Miami.

Now I'm in NY

I moved into Manhattan at the beginning of April, and I've been busy working and doing some exploring - time for an update!

I'm in a 3-BR on the Upper West Side near Lincoln Center. I share with 3 cool roommates, and 2 happy, furry, tail-wagging roommates.

View from the balcony

View from my bedroom (!)

I live very close to Riverside Park, and I've gone running there a few times now. It's a nice path; there's a boardwalk for a bit, along the river, and some neat sights (including the 69th Street Transfer Bridge)

And, I'll leave you with a shot of the flowers in bloom from a few weeks ago. Somewhat relatedly, I went to the farmers market yesterday, and saw lilacs for sale from $5-$7 a bunch. I find this absolutely hilarious, because I could make $100 if I went back to where I grew up and raided the lilac bushes.

Iceland

I spent 4 days in Iceland with my department for a team meeting. A lot of time was spent in a stuffy conference room, but we did get a fair amount of time to explore.

We flew in Sunday night, arriving early Monday morning. Reykjavik is at 64°N, so the sun didn't rise until about 930 while we were there. I didn't get much sleep on the plane, so I took a nap and headed out for a hot dog at noon. Iceland uses GMT, so it's the same time as London (+5 from EST).

Apparently this means "town's best" in Icelandic. The lamb hot dog was pretty tasty, with its mysterious brown sauce and crunchy bits

After an Icelandic Viking beer with some NJ colleagues, I wandered around Reykjavik to get a feel for the small city and take in the scenery. 2/3 of Iceland's population of 300,000 live in the city.






One of the highlights of the trip was the food and drink. I ate a lot of seafood while I was there. Cod, halibut, salmon, and some lobster soup were more of the traditional seafood, but I also had smoked puffin, minke whale, and a black seabird. I had opportunity to have reindeer (already had it in Alaska), foal (was gone before I got a chance to try), and fermented shark, but I passed on the shark. The colleagues who tried that one gave reviews of bad sushi and urine.

On Wednesday, after a morning of meetings, we drove about 40 mins south of the city to have an ATV adventure along the coast. We paired up on quads and drove around for about 2 hours. I opted to be passenger the entire time. I was having a blast on the back of the quad - we maxed out at 55 mph. It also gave me time to take in the alien landscape - no trees, all black lava rocks.





On the way back to the airport, we hit the Blue Lagoon, a thermal bath. The water is a really pretty blue color, heated by the outflow of the geothermal power plant - way cooler than it sounds.



I would very much like to get back to Iceland to see the rest of the country - glaciers, hiking, etc. I'm so glad I got an opportunity to see it - and seeing it in the winter wasn't bad at all.

Chicago. For a day.

Not much to say about Chicago, because I was on the ground for less than a day. I stayed near the shopping district - do natives really say Magnificent Mile? I don't know if it's like a NYer saying Ave of the Americas.

Hotel room view by night and day. Foggy.

In any case, I ate deep dish pizza and drank a Fat Tire at Pizano's. Fat Tire was delicious, and the pizza was... well, it was a lot. Even a little personal sized one. Too much sauce, too much bread, and, dare I say it, too much cheese. I'll stick to my greasy NY/NJ slice, thanks.

I did my client training in the morning, and headed back to the airport after that. In and out in less than 24 hours, but I got a good vibe from the short time I was in the city. I'll be back, Chicago.

Sea fog, the Gulf, and the Menagerie

I took my first-ever trip to the Gulf coast of Florida. My bff Julie was down from Alaska for a conference, and made a stop in Florida to visit her sister and brother-in-law, Val and Keith. I crashed their party and hung out down there for a few days.

It was cloudy or foggy for the most part, but that didn't stop the relaxation or beach time.  Julie and I got in round about the same time on Thursday.  We got lunch at a restaurant where the average age was about 70 (helloooooooooo Florida!)  This was followed by meeting the menagerie at Val and Keith's: 2 pretty cool cats, Psycho and Tigger, plus Sammy the mellow, hungry beagle.  And then there's Honey Bear, the always-happy, obsessive-compulsive bull terrier.  If anyone met my dog Maxine, let's just say she demanded more attention than Maxine did.  She was entertaining to have around though.

We headed to Venice (median age: 68) to sit on the beach.  The weather didn't quite cooperate, as the sea fog we expected to burn off never did.  After sitting on the beach in our sweaters and towels wrapped around us, we got some drinks and later dinner at Sharky's on the Pier.  Mmm tropical drinks and gulf shrimp.

Julie and the foggy pier, Friday at Venice beach

Roomies for life

We headed south to Gasparilla Island on Saturday.  It was cloudy when we got there, but the clouds rolled out and the sea breeze felt nice to cool down the 80° and sun.  I think I've finally learned my sunscreen lesson though - even if it's cloudy, and January, you can still come back to NJ looking like a lobster.

Julie and Val, Gasparilla Island

We had early flights out on Sunday, so Saturday night was spent eating leftovers and bumming out.  Thanks again to Val and Keith for letting me stay with you, and for the chauffeur services!  The rest of the pictures are available here.

Real, live citrus growing on Val and Keith's neighbors' trees.  Hey, I'm from the northeast, let me marvel at this.

Concerts of 2009

2009 was a great year in music for me. I found a bunch of new artists to listen to, and I was lucky enough to a bunch of them in concert this year. The picture and video quality on some of these are not the greatest, apologies in advance. I don't like using my flash at concerts - it's pretty obnoxious to me (at least) and I'm sure the performers aren't so keen on it either. Plus, I like being a stealthy rabid fan.

I'll go backwards in time. The last concert I saw on Thursday at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. I saw Straight No Chaser, an a cappella group from at Indiana University. I was able to get a ticket from a friend who's an IU alum - they were sold out by the time I tried to get ticket. They're famous now for their Christmas a cappella songs, but they did more than that at the concert.

The CMJ Music Festival in NY featured 1000 acts across the boroughs in a few days' time span in October. I went to see Jukebox the Ghost while they were part of the festival at the Bowery Ballroom. You'll see where these guys came from as the post continues.

Yep, I was standing at the stage for Jukebox the Ghost

My friend BA invited me down to see The Bravery at TLA in Philly in October. The lead singer had the swine flu but still put on a good show.

The Bravery

The concert where the average age was definitely at least 5 years lower than my own was the blink-182 show (also with Fallout Boy) at Madison Square Garden. I went with my friend Brett from work and his wife Amanda, who had seen them play 10 years ago. I can't imagine these guys have changed much in the last 10 years. High energy, and lots of boy humor. The best part was Travis's drum solo that had him flying through the air - that was super awesome.

Blurry blink-182

One of the concert highlights was certainly U2 and Muse at Giants Stadium. I had never been to the stadium before, and U2 was on my list of must-see concerts. I took my mom, and she loved it as much as I did. Muse was also great - they are extremely talented musicians.

Muse

Me and my mama before the show started

I saw Jukebox the Ghost for the second time in May, along with Jenny Owens Young at the Bowery Ballroom. A nice, smallish venue allowed me to get pretty close to the stage - I'm so spolied now.

In April I snagged a 5th row seat to Flight of the Conchords at Radio City. This was the best show I went to all year - and possibly of all time. These guys are hilarious, excellent musicians, and put on such a great show.

Terrible Blackberry picture of FotC, without zoom. Part of the great "Alexis lost her camera charger" episode

Ben Folds was pretty awesome too; saw him at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair with my friend Steve in March. This is where I was introduced to Jukebox the Ghost (thank you thank you!) Ben Folds also puts on an excellent show - beside being so talented, he knows how to play to the crowd to make us laugh and participate in the show.

On the floor for Ben Folds

And, the first show of the year was Rufus Wainwright, also at the Wellmont, in February. It was a nice, mellow show for Valentines Day. Great piano skills.

Straight No Chaser tickets are already purchased for their April show. I have my eyes on a few other bands that I didn't get to see this year (MGMT, Arcade Fire), plus Jukebox the Ghost when they go back on tour (how many concerts do I need to go to in order to make me a groupie?)