MORE half-marathon weekend.

Long time, no blog! I'm going to skip over lots of what's been going on in the past couple of months, and will just post a few of the more recent highlights.

Starting with that fact that I finally ran the MORE Half-Marathon in Central Park on April 26th.

Tons and tons of ladies milling about in the post-race waiting area.

I was really excited for the race --- I'd trained pretty hard and completed my last long run at my goal pace. So you can imagine my disappointment when, on the morning of the race, I found out that the race wouldn't be scored and that it was downgraded to a "fun run." I was really bummed. The change meant that the scoring chips (which monitor the amount of time you spend running a course) wouldn't work and that the race wouldn't be listed on my New York Road Runners record. Not a big deal in the long run, but the competitor in me was sad. I've been working to improve my speed in a long-distance race (which isn't saying much in terms of all runners, but good in terms of my personal goals).

But it made good sense why the race got downgraded. When we started the race, it was 70 degrees. By the time I crossed the finish line, it was just about 80 degrees! Way too hot for a 13.1 mile race, even with lots of hydration. Especially considering that 7,700 women ran or walked the race, many of whom had not completed a long-distance race before. The ambulances kept very busy throughout the course. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. And I was happy because (although I had to time myself) I beat my personal goal in terms of race time!

With Nick near the finish line -- a sweaty mess, but happy to be finished!

After the race, Nick and I grabbed brunch at one of my favorite Soho restaurants, Lure. They have a great weekend brunch menu -- $24.95 for a prix fixe meal that includes a drink (including my fav, the bloody mary), appetizer (which includes 1/2 a dozen oysters as an option) and entree. Perfect post-race fuel. Plus, the restaurant is under the Prada store. Who could resist?

Later that evening, Nick and I met up with some friends for a low-key early birthday dinner at Mary Ann's, a Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood.
It was nice to get together with some of my NYC favorites, especially given how busy everyone has been lately!

much to be thankful for . . . .

I just finished up a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. The past four days were filled with lots of food and plenty of relaxing. On Wednesday night, Nick and I decided to get a jump-start on holiday shopping by checking out the crazy sale at Saks and the cute holiday display they unveiled the night before. Half of the windows featured the Swarovsky windows featuring designers including Zac Posen, Alexander McQueen, Bill Blass, etc, but I wasn't all that impressed. I did, however like the cute windows based on the book A Flake Like Mike.
The story is based in "Snowflake City," and centers around this adorable snowflake, Mike:
The basic jist of the story is that Mike is different, and eventually encourages all of the other snowflakes to be different too ----- which is now each and every snowflake that we see is different from the rest.
A pretty cute story encouraging kids to embrace their identities as individuals!

We couldn't handle midtown for more than a couple of hours, so we hightailed it to the Upper West Side to check out the balloons inflated for the next day's Macy's Thanksgiving parade. It was crazy-crowded, but we had a blast checking out the balloons without having to deal with the terrible parade-day crowds:
It's crazy how big the balloons are! Look at at old Horton here compared to the apartment building.
This is me + Nick posing with my favorite balloon, modeled after a Keith Haring piece, in honor of what would have been his 50th birthday:
Although Nick and I opted out of seeing the actual parade, here's a picture of some of the balloons making their way through the parade route on Thanksgiving day:

After freezing our buns off outdoors, Nick and I decided to check out the new Shake Shack outpost. For you non NYC-ers, this place is famous for its burgers and milkshakes. People will wait in line for an hour to get their hands on Shake Shack goods. Luckily, with the new branch, there's no need to wait outdoors, and the line was only 15 minutes!

Here's the before picture. Nick got a cheeseburger, I opted for the portobello mushroom burger + black & white milkshake, ice cream sundae, and piles of fries to share.
We clearly loved the food, as evidenced by the aftermath:

After a restful night of sleep, Nick and I headed to Goddard Riverside Community Center to help prepare and deliver Thankgiving meals to homebound elderly folks in the community. The event was a part of a program the center puts on every year, which includes serving Thankgiving dinner to about 1000 homeless New Yorkers. It's the second year we've volunteered, and is a highlight of my holidays.

Since both Nick and I are far away from family, we continued our tradition of making a meal for just the two of us. We made way too much food, but managed to eat most of it anyway!
It was Sid's first Thanksgiving, which he seemed excited about. Well, at least he didn't look as annoyed as usual when I stuck a camera in his face:
And, in accordance with Thanksgiving tradition, Sid quickly learned the art of the food coma nap and cuddled up with his new mouse friend:
I spent the rest of the weekend meeting up with some friends, watching lots of bad movies, and just having a great break. Although the past few weeks (and years for that matter) have been filled with ups and downs, I have a great deal to be thankful for. And for that, I feel blessed.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your family/friends/loved ones! Sending lots of love your way.

weekends without work = just as enjoyable as i remember!

The past couple of months of work were intense, and the past couple of weeks of life have been very overwhelming ---- that's why it was so nice to finally have an entire weekend free without work and/or other drama. Spent most of the weekend catching up on some much-needed sleep + also got to do some much-needed socializing!

Started Saturday by going out to Williamsburg to join two of my cousins, Lindsey and Erin, for brunch at Relish (perhaps most famous for its presence in the hot "Milkshake" music video by Kelis). The place was cute, tasty and affordable --- a great combination!
I loved the old-school diner feel of the place --- apparently it's been around for decades, and was most recently brought to Brooklyn + remodeled in 2000. Anyway, I haven't seen the girls in a couple of years, so it was especially nice to hang out. They are awesome, and I look forward to hanging out with them more often now that we're all living in NYC.

After brunch, I headed back to Manhattan to meet up with Nick, his brother and my buddy Nan to watch the Apple Cup @ Dewey's Flatiron. Man, I love my Huskies, but this season has been unbearable. By the end of the night I quickly found out what's worse than a 0 - 10 season: A 0 - 11 season, with the most recent loss to the Cougs.
I'm still irritated about the whole thing, so I can't say much else. Tyrone Cunningham seems like a really good guy, but this season (amongst other missteps) justifies his early termination.

I wrapped up the weekend on Sunday night with two of my favorite co-workers. I adore Gail and Effi -- they've become not only two of my work favorites, but also two of my closest friends in the city. We all billed crazy hours over the past couple of months, and they helped me through the turmoil of the past couple of weeks so it was a real treat to have them take me out to one of Jeffrey Chodrow's restaurants -- Asia de Cuba -- for a pick-me-up meal.

The space was fantastic. Which wasn't a huge surprise, since Phillipe Starck designed the place. I didn't have high hopes for the food, since it sounded like another one of those hip Asian-fusion places that had watered down flavors, etc. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the food was actually pretty tasty (with generous portions), especially the picadillo-style tuna app, the miso-cured black cod and the bread pudding dessert. And the drinks were also fantastic, particularly some kind of fruity vodka and champagne concoction they dreamed up.
All in all, a fantastic night and an excellent way to wrap up one of the first relaxing weekends I've had in months. God knows I needed it!