Summer on the East Coast

I haven't been back to New York since I moved home, and that all changed this past week. The one work trip I take in the summer is an annual forum in Washington DC during the last week of July. It's a miserable time to be on the mid-Atlantic seaboard with the heat and humidity, but it was the cheapest way to get us both out to NYC... after my conference I took a bus up from DC and AJ took a red eye in to the city.

The conference itself was really good, as usual. It's probably my favorite event to go to all year. And, I got to see a lot of familiar faces, including Jessica, Chrishon and Haley. On the last day of the conference, we got out around lunch, so my boss Anju, Jessica and me went to the National Portrait Gallery and got to see (among many others) the new Obama portraits, Barack and Michelle. Loved them!!

Then Jessica and I went to the National Archives and saw the Magna Carta, Constitution and Declaration of Independence. One guard told a little girl to stop banging on the glass or Nicholas Cage would come steal her LOLOLOL.

Jessica left Thursday evening and I had an early night since I had to get up at 5am to catch my 6:30am bus to NYC. I used to take the Bolt Bus all the time from NYC to Boston, Philly, Baltimore and DC, so it was just like old times! We even stopped at the old faithful Welcome Center in Delaware...

...which has since been renamed the Biden Welcome Center! I enjoyed that.

For all the year I've taken Bolt Bus, I never had a problem... until this time! We were soooo closeeee to New York City, we had passed Newark Liberty Airport and could see the NYC skyline... and the bus basically broke down on the side of the road, and we had to wait for another to come pick us up (oh and it didn't see us the first time and overshot us LOL) and then get on that the rest of the way. Delayed us a good hour in the end, but I wasn't exactly in any rush so I didn't totally mind.

Thankfully we were able to check in pretty early (instead of waiting until 4pm - sheesh!) and we were down near Ground Zero. We went up to the Flatiron to meet my friend Kevin for a really fun lunch. We went around to Eataly and had drinks and oysters (we actually had a lot of oysters that weekend) and then we went back near the hotel to see Alexander Hamilton's grave in Trinity Church, and then had to take a nap.

We rallied super late and ended up going out to the Village for pizza and drinks and general merrymaking. I tried to take him to Fat Cat Jazz but there was a dumb cover so we said neverminddddd!

I left this on the wall in John's on Bleecker pizza

I only now learned that the roses are placed in
the names at Ground Zero on their birthdays

Day 2 was friggin hot, but was more uptown fun. Chinatown, Central Park and some Upper West Side. It was crazy how familiar it all was, I felt like I had never left. All the smells were the the same, the hot air on the subways, the alerts and dings and cars. Of course some things changed, like some tap and go options for riding the subway, and the extension of the 7 train to 34 Street Hudson Yards and the crazy Oculus center. But it all still felt very familiar overall.

At my favorite place - Crocodile Lounge!

On the subway

We got super lucky with the timing of our trip, because Jayna was also coming to town for work. So on Sunday morning, we met up with her and Jenny and Jenny's husband and kids for dim sum in Queens. It was the first time Charlie's Angels had been reunited together since Jayna's wedding in June 2016! It was so much fun!! And Olivia is getting so big! And it was my first time meeting Kingston. Dim sum was also delicious and we stayed there forever talking and reminiscing. Definitely the highlight of the trip!

We were crashing with Jayna that night at her hotel, but since she had a welcome reception to go to, AJ and I decided to go to the Yankees/Red Sox game, and made it a point to visit my old (first!) apartment in NYC on the way up, and stop by my favorite bar.

All the feels! Here I was on 106 & Columbus, second brownstone from the right.

Holy geez it got cleaned up so good!! A better buzzer system and cleaned up and tiled and basically just getting super bougie now! I probably wouldn't even be able to afford that place now haha. Although I do miss how it was when I was living there in 2010, 2011.

We stopped by my old haunt 1020 and I should've known my bartender and friends wouldn't be there since it was a Sunday evening (and I would be there after work on weeknights) but it was still fun and a good nostalgic time, and I did still know the bartender who was working that evening, Ray.

It was fun seeing a Yankees/Red Sox game. Man were those Yankees fans mean to Boston LOL. And it was fun to see Cameron Maybin with them. I've liked him since the Padres! (Thanks Pam and Doug). And then I was stoked when he came to the Angels. And then I was sad when he went to Houston, but happy for him because he won a World Series, and now I got to see him again in New York.

We left late Monday night so we had all day to go explore more of the city. Times Square, Grand Central Station, Brooklyn Bridge, lunch at a whimsical restaurant (with half a dozen oysters each).

Mermaid in Starbucks by Rockefeller Plaza

Grand Central ceiling - I love the Zodiac!

I love the Audrey piece!

It was a really good time (despite the heat and crowds) and man I could have done and seen so much more! It's hard to cram 4 years of memories into a quick weekend!

Our new favorite game at the Newark airport

Man I love the East Coast! I had a great week. Even though I enjoy being home with my puppers and kitters, it was a right good time.

In Memorium

Last week I received a shock. My Facebook had a notification that I couldn't get to go away even though I didn't see any notifications. So I did a deep dive and went into the "Other" side of the inbox and found a message from someone I did not know.

He said, this is Kandace Richardson's dad, and Kandace passed away on Sunday morning...

I remember my first reaction being "What? No, that's not right. Kandace is fine, I just saw a post from her a few days ago."

I went to her page and everyone was already commenting how they missed her. It's so surreal, and weird, and doesn't make sense.

Kandace was one of my best friends in elementary school. We were friends in middle school and she went to a different high school, but we kept in touch. As a matter of fact, it was just two months ago she was commenting on pictures and we were saying how we needed to catch up soon. It's been a week since I learned about it, but I still can't believe it.

I'm a little frustrated because I was trying to find a photo album of mine from elementary school that has lots of pictures of us together in it and I wasn't able to. There's zero chance I ever threw that photo album away, but it's probably in the back of the garage. Someday soon I will pull that out and share the photos of me and Kandace from our childhood. I know very vividly there are pictures of us getting ready for the sixth grade dance together in there. Maybe some from my house on the trampoline. In lieu of those, I want to share memories of me and Kandace...

• She had such beautiful handwriting, all the girls in our grade were jealous. It was clean and simple with a curvy edge. I always liked hers the most.
• I would tease her for having the same birthday as Michael Jackson, August 29. Why that was something to make fun of, I'm not sure, but it was funny in elementary school.
• She used to have a good singing voice and she would always sing Usher songs!
• I remember at one of her slumber parties we stayed up and watched Children of the Corn and it terrified me
• She used to wear a lot of shimmer and glitter eyeshadow. But then again, this was 1998 and so did I
• I had been at her house for a few days I think, after some of her birthday celebrations, when we were hanging out in her living room and the news came on that Princess Diana had died in a car accident

Anyway, I still can't believe she's gone. Even though we weren't still close or anything, she was such a big presence in my childhood and I'd never forget her. The worst part was that I didn't see the message from her dad for about 2 weeks late, and so I completely missed her funeral. I have to say goodbye to her myself, Kandace Marie Richardson, who lived on Royce Street in Riverside, California. August 29, 1986 - June 30, 2019.

Jessie Rees Foundation

My boss organized for my department to do some volunteer work together, so yesterday we all went to the Jessie Rees Foundation in Orange County to stuff Joy Jars. This was all I knew about it until we got there.

We were there for about an hour and a half and I think I wanted to cry for like an hour and 15 minutes. We learned about Jessie Rees, who was diagnosed with her two inoperable brain tumors at age 11 and had a 10 month fight before she passed away in 2012. During that time, all she wanted to do was make jars of toys to deliver to kids who had to stay overnight in the hospital, and she named them Joy Jars and she had very specific instructions for how to do them too. We got to watch a video about her and her family, the legacy of the Joy Jars, and how the mission is continuing today. Then, we got to work in the joy factory.

These were legit no joke. We had specific instructions for filling them, which included the way toys were shown in the 'joy window', including no tags or barcodes, and they needed to be stuffed to the brim with no air and no sound when you shook it.

The jar I was given was for a girl aged 0-12 months. So yeah, try to fill a jar with rubber ducks and knit beanies and Minnie Mouse bibs knowing the baby who gets to wear this is fighting cancer and try not to be depressed. We got to seal and shrink wrap them ourselves, then box them up and label them and take a group picture with them.

We all only made one but I felt like I could have made twenty! It's been a long time since I did any sort of volunteering at all. I'm overdue for some more. What a great legacy to leave behind. And if you know of any kids fighting cancer, let them know about her foundation - you can sign up to receive the Joy Jars completely free.

Baby Showers and Poker

AJ and I had a pretty gosh darn good weekend. It started with my brilliant idea to spend Friday night drinking in the spa. I was sure we were going to have to battle neighbors for space being a Friday night but nope, it was just us and a plastic carafe full of pinot noir! Amazing what qualifies as a perfect Friday night when you're in your 30s versus your 20s. Ha.

On Saturday we had goals to clean out the garage. We moved into this house with the intention of the garage being AJ's man cave, so it's a liveable space, and yet AJ has since destroyed it in the seven months we've lived here because, well, no supervision with that one is not good for cleanliness. The real motivator for AJ, however, was that we recently bought a treadmill and if I was going to be able to workout without blocking his view of the TV, we were going to have to clear it out. We had a baby shower to go to in the afternoon so I was a little pessimistic about what we could get done that morning but we got it all done! And the place is amazingly beautiful and I now have my own little treadmill space, and facing the TV too so I can be entertained as well. Ha.

The baby shower was a lot of fun! It was fiesta themed and it was taking place two blocks down from us, so we even got to make walktails and head over there leisurely. Little baby bean is due early August, and AJ won the baby bottle chugging game so we came home with some Casamigos tequila. Not bad!

You can't even tell who the pregnant one is,
I know, but she's right in the middle. You can
see the belly when she stands sideways! I had
to either stand and be two heads taller than
everyone, or sit and be one head shorter. Lulz.

I'm assuming because he was so stoked on the garage, he invited some guys over for poker. It was such a big experience because AJ won so much money, so I made him give me some. Hey house needs at least 10%.

Sunday was really leisurely, and I got to play with Khaleesi Bug a bunch. Anana scared her into the bathroom so she hung out in the shower for awhile and I couldn't coax her out.

AJ and I finished the night by ordering food and watching Talladega Nights. This week isn't crazyyyyyy but I'm looking forward to getting through it. But then I leave on Monday for a conference. I feel like I haven't traveled in over a year!

Santa Barbara & Book of Mormon

Once upon a time I bought tickets to see Book of Mormon while I was in Canada. And I conveniently forgot the day I bought tickets for and missed the show. It's a long story and one that still hurts, but earlier this year AJ and I bought tickets for us to go see it when it came to LA-ish in Thousand Oaks.

We decided to make a weekend of it. I cashed in some hotel points for a free room up north, and because it was Bastille Day weekend (July 14th, France's "independence" day), we were in town to check out the Santa Barbara French festival too!

I should note it's a very humble festival but it is the cutest little festival there ever was. I think there's a relatively big population of French in the area, and this was it's 31st year going! I found out about it in the summer of 2006, when I was preparing to go abroad for the academic year and we were in an orientation and I met Katie Rose, who would become one of my best friends and my roommate out there. I think she knew about it, and she and I went to it together... 13 years ago now! So I dragged AJ up there with me. It was the perfect opportunity for him to wear his new shirt that I bought for him on some of my recent travels- but no one commented on it!

That's us in front of their little replica
Eiffel Tower haha

Nevermind Da Vinci was Italian

Guillotine! So French

Downing a Nutella crêpe om nom nom

The festival is cute. They have lots of food including crêperies and wine and bakeries with baguettes. They sold shirts and berets and scarves. There were travel companies and French renaissance re-enactments and French facts and lots of live French music, can-can dancers, accordion players, French conversation corners, and my favorite that we sadly missed, the canine cavalry. It was wa nice day!

Otherwise we wandered around downtown Santa Barbara and up and down State Street and I relived all my college memories and made some new ones. Santa Barbara is heaven on earth!

The next day we watched Wimbledon (my God what a match!) and we were both going for Federer so that was a hard one to watch, and then we went and saw Book of Mormon at the Thousand Oaks Civic Center.

Let me just say that AJ in his jeans and button-up shirt, and me in my summer dress... somehow we were way overdressed. Was it the weather, the place, the matinee, or just the fact that American culture has gone downhill? We were tempted to go change into our pajamas because everyone else was seriously that sloppy! Whatever.

We both really enjoyed it (it's a good one!) but Hamilton is still the superior musical.

It was loverly to get home to our animals after the weekend away!

Weekends with Grammy

On her 101 year, 8 month birthday I went to visit grammy. She wanted to go to bed at 4pm! I'm glad she was able to hold out and wait for me to get there and hang out with her.

My mom gave us essential oil facials LOL. So that was my Saturday.

I had a long weekend with Thursday and Friday off. Made coming work today pretty rough. We had a nice 4th, went to a friend's pool and played a lot of Monopoly deal. I hate learning new games but it turned out fun.

Otherwise, a lot of lounging and bingeing Stranger Things 3. This is what we looked like most of the weekend:

She did relax for like 2 minutes! New record.

She looks almost peaceful doesn't she?

I should enjoy all this downtime before fall comes and I'm back on the road.

Nate Bargatze

AJ and I had a really busy weekend last weekend. On Saturday night we got to see Nate Bargatze at the Irvine Improv with Pam, Doug and Fern. We went early to the Spectrum and did a happy hour at Yard House.

On Sunday morning we got to visit Alyse and Mike and meet new baby Oliver (not even 2 weeks yet!)

Right after that I surprised AJ with an Angels game, hosted by Marisa and Nate at Nate's company's Diamond Club table with free food and drinks too. It was a hot day, but a good game, and made a little more bittersweet after the news of Tyler Skaggs' passing on Monday. He wasn't pitching while we were there, but it was still the last game before it happened.

The best part of the weekend was Nate Bargatze. Pam has introduced all of us to him and told us about the event in Irvine. I bought the tickets on Easter when Pam mentioned it, and we all sprung for VIP. We literally sat against the stage. It was a little intimidating being that close! And then there was the meet & greet afterwards where we got a picture and Pam recorded a video of them saying "Anchor Down!" together in support of Vanderbilt.

I think his Netflix specials were better, but AJ thought this set we saw on Saturday was better than those. Either way, still good!

We got out early today (over an hour ago) but I'm so busy and still have so much going on, I won't be leaving early. But I'm off Friday too so whatevs - power through now and I can have KBBQ tonight!