It's not always sunny in Summer-delphia

I totally don't watch that show or anything, but Summerdelphia would be a totally rockin' city.

Here lately, most of my thoughts, some comments and deleted writings seem to be accompanied by the "Debbie Downer" noise (anyone else hear cartoon-style noises in their head - or should I head straight to the looney bin alone?). I don't know what the deal is. I'm usually way past the holiday-season funk and living it up by summer time. This year is different though.

My situation is not really different overall. There've been some instances lately where I've had my feelings hurt pretty bad by people I really care about, but the consequence of saying anything is too great to have that discussion. And being that suppressed is not good for me. It makes me angry and all that gets bottled up and internalized. I hate feeling that way. I hate even more that I can't express what's going on. Most of all, I hate that I can't fix it and the liklihood for change is so so so very slim.

Oh well...I didn't intend to get into all that. I wanted to post this song - I love it. You may recognize it from the Mott's commercial with Marcia Cross. It's definitely on my to download list...



I have 5 locations left to visit in my 30 facility tour...I enjoy the traveling but would obviously benefit from a little less "me" time...

Summer...just like the season

Last week, I had the privilege to have dinner with an high school friend. I've been working out of town and it worked out that she was free the night I was in town with her. We enjoyed Cheesecake Factory and great conversation.

I'm not sure how we got on the subject, but I ended up telling a story from my freshman year in college. In summation, I made a statement and she immediately responded that it was a good quote, so I'm going to share with you, my adoring readers (haha!).

My freshman year at A&M I lived in Mosher Hall. My friend, Alissa, also lived in the same dorm so we hung out a bit. During move-in week, I remember going downstairs to Alissa's room and she introduced me to her neighbor (maybe suitemate?) who was rushing the same sorority with her. I don't remember her name (which becomes a little ironic) - we can call her Sue for the sake of the story - and to protect her identity. We all talked a bit and she seemed nice enough.

As the semester went on, I visited Alissa's room periodically and each time I saw Sue, she would always look at me like it was the first time we'd met, so Alissa would introduce me. By October/November, I would greet her by name and she'd look at me like she just couldn't place me. At this point, it was getting under my skin that she couldn't remember me. I distinctly remember thinking at one point "Chick, I may not be in your circle of friends, but I'm still worth you knowing my name." The last part - about being worth knowing is the part my HS friend liked.

When she commented on it, it dawned on me how profound this simple experience was on me now. I make a point to remember names. One of our employees told me once that I had a freakishly good memory when it came to knowing their names and which facility they work out (by the way - we have 30+ facilities and about 400 employees - I don't claim to know them all, but I certainly remember most). I really think that's something important to me because of my Lauren experience.

My point in telling this wasn't to front out Sue(as evidenced by the fact that I didn't even remember her name) or to brag on my memory - but really to thank her. As I've gone to each location over the last month, I've had more than one employee seem surprised that I knew who they were. I see them in person one time per year - but they are important to our company. And people are important to me.

And frankly, we are all worth knowing each others' names.

Girls Gone BROADWAY!

Bate your breath no more – here is my NYC blog!

Back in January, my mom decided she would like to take a girls’ trip to NYC for her 60^th birthday. We started checking prices and found a really great day for our flights and hotel. We flew out early Thursday, May 13 and came home the following Sunday. There were eight total in our group – my mom, her bff, bff’s sister, my aunt, my sister, my s-i-l, Miss A and me. It may seem daunting to travel with a group that size,  but it worked out great when we wanted to see different things. We could easily split into groups of 4 or 5 & 3 and safely see the sights.

Thursday

We landed in NYC at about 1:30 and took a limo to the hotel. Miss A thought that was way too cool – mostly the neon lights and “starry” ceiling. We arrived at our hotel a little before check-in. If there was one disappointment in the trip, it was that the hotel information we had was deceiving at best. The pictures online made it appear to be right on Times Square – literally next to the theater hosting The Lion King…in all actuality, it was 3 blocks west and 2 blocks north. Not a ruiner by any stretch, but it did make us more aware of our surroundings since the area was far less crowded than we anticipated. When we checked in, we requested lower floor rooms – which turned out to also be a good idea. They had two elevators and 35 floors. One elevator broke Friday afternoon and was not fixed by the time we left Sunday. In order to get our luggage downstairs, I went to the first floor (stairs) and rode the elevator up to come back down. My s-i-l asked how I planned to keep people from joining me in the elevator car. I promised to fake a rash or fever if that’s what it took. Thankfully, it didn’t come down to that.

We had lunch at a little sandwich shop around the corner, went back and got our bags situated, then boarded the subway to Ground Zero. When I was there 2 years ago, there were still some makeshift memorials standing as well as displays of the memorials that were being designed. This time, they had moved everything to a building a block over. They also had set up a separate tribute area, but it had an admission fee. Since Miss A is 6, she didn’t have any concept of 9-11 and what happened that day, nor did she need to know all of that at this point. So I walked her through the memorial, but we focused on the souvenirs and building plans more than we did the video and stories. The last thing she needed was another reason to not be a fan of flying (ear popping was not fun for her!).

After visiting the WTC site, we worked our way up to Canal Street and Chinatown. Our mission – bags and watches. Apparently, there has been a major crackdown on this as we had a hard time getting people to share their wares with us. One guy had watches, but he got mad at the middleman we were working through and ran off shouting expletives. We did manage to go into a secret-knock room. I found a few purses and bought watches for a friend. It’s such a rush to be there and shopping “underground.”

We had decided to have dinner in Chinatown before we got there, and all of our covert shopping worked up quite an appetite. We found a place that others recommended for their noodle bowls and went in. Of course, none of us ordered noodles. We ordered super adventurous stuff like sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, fried rice and general sao’s chicken. It was all really good and Miss A and I excitedly utilized our chopsticking skills.

With full bellies, we got back on the subway to head to the hotel via Times Square. Times Square is truly breathtaking at night when it is all lit up. After a good night’s sleep, we were ready for day two.

Friday

We purchased 3-day hop-on/hop-off bus tour tickets. These tickets included admission to the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and a few other things. The nice part is that the tour is designed to be at your own pace. If you came to a stop you wanted to explore, you got off, spent time there and then waited for the next bus. We got off at the Empire State Building first. After we made our way to the elevator – they told us visibility was only 2 miles. This was a total bummer and had we known sooner, we would have probably aimed to do it on Saturday. But it felt too late to turn back so we went on up. Even with fog, the view was spectacular. Sadly, due to the fog, my pictures don’t do it much justice.

From there, we headed to Battery Park to get on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Our tickets did not provide monument access (another thing we wished we’d known ahead a time – for this to not be our first trip, we still have learning to do!). The Statue of Liberty is such an incredible monument. I am awestruck each time I see it. Ellis Island is more of a reverent tribute (in my opinion) to those who wanted to be Americans no matter the cost. It’s humbling to see how many people still feel this way and immigrate here while knowing how many of us take it for granted.

After getting back to the “mainland” (though still an island), we split our group up. The more adult half wanted to take the night tour and see the city lit up while the younger half wanted to visit Dylan’s Candy Bar and do a little uptown shopping. Dylan’s Candy Bar is quite an experience. It’s three floors of nothing but candy. Chocolate, gummies, fudge, international, domestic, you dream it they have it – gummy bras included! We loaded up way more than we needed but had a blast looking at it all. The stairs are illuminated to appear as if they are filled with gummy candy. They had a huge claw foot tub full of gumballs. And the bathroom had wallpaper resembling the wallpaper in the original Willy Wonka – though we resisted taking a taste. The third floor was a café/sundae bar and we skipped it knowing we needed something more nutritious than ice cream for dinner (darn being an adult!).

From there we headed to H&M to check it out, walked into Bloomingdale’s (long enough to utilize their facilities) and then headed back to Times Square for dinner at Hard Rock Café.  At this point, we were all more worn out than we realized – my poor niece fell asleep  while we waited for our food!  We had quite a walk ahead of us and we were trying to figure out how to get a sleepy girl there without a fight.  As we waited for my sister to check out – I saw salvation in the form of a bike taxi.  I asked the guy how far he went and he asked where we were headed.  I gave him the address of our hotel, warned him there were four of us and he said he could do it.  So we loaded up and off we went.  At points he seemed to struggle a bit and my s-i-l kept apologizing.  Finally, A (who woke up in a good mood – miracle!) said, “Momma, he got this.”  I tipped the guy the same price as the fare and I kid you not when I say it was the best money I spent the whole trip.

Saturday

We got up, walked down the stairs and headed to Rockefeller Center for our Today show debut.  We waved and hollered as the cameras panned the outside audience.  Then, while in “story” mode, my sister, s-i-l and I headed to Dean and Deluca for drinks and breakfast.  Of course, while we were waiting there, the Today show interviewed a couple near our sign and the rest of our group made it onto the show.  I’m good with missing that though.

 

(Mr. Cantore – see how good I’d look in your jacket?)

We took quite a few pictures and shopped the NBC store before heading uptown on the bus to Strawberry Fields.  This is the memorial site in Central Park for John Lennon.  It’s really neat.  There’s a guy who has been decorating the site with flowers arranged in a peace sign everyday for nine years.  He works for donations (lots of folks on the  streets do).  We had a hot dog lunch in the park before heading back to the hotel to refresh. 

Once we’d freshened up, the 5 us (mom, s-i-l, sister, niece and me) went to see Mary Poppins.  It was really good!  There was a lady in front of us who was a total anti-bac overuser and that was entertaining in and of itself.  After the show, we went to the American Girl store where my best friend, Jason and his girlfriend, Melissa met us. 

We put my mom in a taxi to meet the others in our group to see Wicked.  And then we were off…we walked through Times Square just hanging out and enjoying the sites.  We had dinner at Junior’s – they are famous for their cheesecakes and it was delicious.  A was sweetly jealous of the attention I gave Jason – she was all in my lap and loving on me the whole time.  She’s normally sweet, but this was to the extreme (though I still enjoyed it!).  We saw a group where an older man was wearing an Aggie cap – so I stopped to say hi on my way to the bathroom and of course ended up talking to them for awhile.

It was a great night of souvenir scavenging and laughing/talking with Jason and Melissa.  I’m so glad they were able to come up and hang out with us.  They were troopers as we walked all over looking for 7 for $10 t-shirts and when A and I rode the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us.  By about 10:30/11 though, we were done for the day.  They headed back to PA and we headed to bed.

Sunday

We pretty much just flew home this day.  All in all, it was a wonderful trip!

Since I don't remember to take pics, I'll not likely have a food blog...

But here's the recipe for your enjoyment...

Sopapilla Cheesecake

1 can crescent rolls (have you ever had a bad recipe where this was the #1 ingredient?)
2 8 oz packages cream cheese softened (or nuked for 60-90 seconds)
1/2-3/4 c sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
3 T melted butter
1 T vanilla
1 T cinnamon
2 T sugar

Preheat oven to 350­°. Grease 8 inch pan and line with half of the crescent rolls. Press seams together to form a crust. Bake 10 mins. Stir together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over crescent rolls creating an even layer. Top with remaing crescent dough (seams pressed again). Pour melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (those measurements aren't exact - add more if you like). Bake another 20 mins until golden brown.

Cool enough to not remove the top layers of taste buds, but I enjoy it slightly warm, so I don't cool it too long.

I hope you like it! It's very yummy and easy to throw together if you, like us keep the above ingredients on hand.

I also realize that I utilize too many parantheses in my recipes...that may also bar me from creating a food blog. I'm not an exact cook or baker. I was blessed with my grandmother's sense for it.

Lastly, at 7:15 central time, my mom, sister, sister-in-law, niece, aunt, mom's best friend, mom's best friend's sister and I will be taking off from the Tyler airport for a girls weekend in New York City (my house will remain occupied and guarded - boo on you would be burglars)for my mom's 60th birthday. If you are a Today show watcher, watch for us on Friday - we're going to do our best to get on the fence and on camera. But they start their concert series that day so it may be more crowded than we anticipate. Anyway, we are so super excited and I hope to innundate you with blog posts to follow. In fact, with the add-a-page feature, I'm considering starting a Girlfriend Getaway page. Thoughts?

April Fun Wrap-Up

¡Hola Amigos! Consider that my Cinco de Mayo shout out. I hope this blog finds you all well and as full of Mexican goodies as I am. We had a fiesta at work featuring lunch from On The Border and a sopapilla cheesecake made by yours truly. Muy delicioso, indeed. Seven spanish words in the first paragraph - Ms. Novak, Ms. Fisher and Mrs. Hall - be proud.

I'm really doing my best to live out my word for the year, FUN. In January, I had the Blog Gals reunion. February featured a shopping trip in San Marcos with my mom and aunt. March featured all sorts of birthday fun for my nephew and me, as well as the Wheel of Fortune tryouts. April had some living up to do!

Chilifest
My first fun adventure in April was Chilifest on the 9th. I hadn't been to Chilifest since I moved from Bryan/College Station in 1999. I was a little worried I'd be too old to go. Come to find out, I wasn't. Sure the beer sprays were a little annoying...but it's good for your hair and when the day was at its hottest, I couldn't be too disappointed about a cool sprinkle. We had a good sized group - my sister, some of her friends, my sister-in-law and two of her friends. We enjoyed Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, Eli Young Band and Aaron Watson. By the time he was done, we were ready to head out, so we missed Dwight Yoakam.

Of course no visit to B/CS is complete with out a stop at Wings, World Market (which didn't open until way after I left) and Bucees on the drive home. We laughed, sang, danced a little and had a great time with each other.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

For my next April fun adventure, I went to the Rangers game on April 26. We had access to season tickets 19 rows off the first base line - closer to home plate than the dugout. To say the seats were incredible, is an understatement! Three coworkers and I enjoyed garlic fries (yum!), Dr. Pepper, good baseball and lots of laughs.

Most of the laughs started at the expense of these two guys behind us. They were cracking us up with this conversations:

(They were probably late 30s, a little country sounding (yes I'm sure that's pots and kettles there) and had already had a drink or two...also, they introduced themselves later so the D1 and D2 are their first initials - the 1 and 2 distinguihes for you)

D1: Dude, you gotta get on facebook.
D2: I don't have time for all that.
D1: You don't know what you're missing! There's a girl on mine who has a picture of herself all bowed up. She has star tattoos on her side (oblique area I'm guessing) that look like they're shooting and her back is all bowed up. It's the meat of the sandwich right there.

At that point, we realized we were all listening to them as we each giggled under our breaths.

A bit later, my coworker asked them to take a picture of us. D2 said "with my camera or yours." He took the picture then told us to let him know if we needed anything else. This voice which I didn't' quite recognize as my own popped off with, "since you're offering, I'll take a good cold beer, just sayin'" He asked what kind. I told him I was teasing, but he insisted so I relented. One of the other girls in our group told him to make it 2. And the sucker delivered.

After he settled back in his seat, he asked if we were there to watch anyone in particular. I said the red team. Haha. He thought I was being mean, but I told him I was just being funny he said he knew how girls were. I told him I may have had a few assertive tendencies, but I really didn't have it in me to be mean to a total stranger. We all talked and joked most of the game and they tried convincing us to go to Humperdinks with them afterwards. Since it was a business trip, that was not an option, but it was fun to be the sort of flirty, quick-witted, into sports chick (which I legitimately am but isn't probably something most folks would guess about me) for an evening. I think I need to muster the courage to be a smart alec to strangers more often. It paid off with lots of laughs, two free beers and an invite we had to refuse.

Addicted...

Hello. My name is Summer and I'm an addict. You see, I'm addicted to good deals and free stuff. It does not matter whether I need said good deal or free stuff. I see it and I want it.

Over my birthday weekend, I had several shopping opportunities. I picked up a few cute things for my niece and nephews. I even found a few tops, shorts and dresses for me. But dear readers, the thing that got me (that always gets me) is shoes, namely flip flops and sandals. In a little over a 48 hour period, I bought 6 pair. Two pair were buy one get one 1/2 off and already on sale, so I got them for just under the regular price of one pair. The other 4, well, I needed new black ones and they had two pair I liked for $13 so I got them...and then there were Reefs for $10...two pair there too. Ridiculous, isn't it? It's not like I don't already have an abundance of shoes - but I had none like these.

And then there are websites that fuel my addiction.

Have you heard of Target's daily deal? Every day they post a one day only special. This special comes with free shipping and can be returned to any Target store without issue. I check the site daily and most of the time, it's things I can live without. In the year I've discovered it, I've made 3 total purchases: two shoe racks (ironic?), a shirt (which I didn't like so I gave to someone else) and today I picked up some game systems for my mom (to give to the kiddos) because they were half off folks and she'd been looking at them.

Lastly, I love free stuff. Did y'all know that Wal-Mart has a page on their website for free samples? You can choose to participate in a survey on the product or not. Either way, you still receive the sample in 4-6 weeks. This has been a great way for me to try various tooth whiteners (I have issues with the cement stains from my braces showing through with some), body wash (I'm SUPER picky about fragrances - most give me migraines), shampoo and conditioner (because I'm not going to waste $15 to try Fekkai products unless I know they work), etc. I even requested a free sample of new dog food. This one was silly because Cooper is finicky - he only eats one brand. But it's worth a shot and was FREE!

Thankfully, my addiction doesn't really impede my life. Sure, I'm not adding that money to my savings, but I'm definitely not going into debt either. It's my "fun" money. It's the thrill of the chase to some extent too. Knowing that I found a $60 game system for $29.99 rocks my socks (or one of the 6 pair of sandals as the case may be) off.

Happy Easter to you all! I hope the weather is beautiful where you are and that you enjoy the thrill of hunting eggs with little ones! I'm especially thankful that Friday was not the end of the story - just the beginning of everlasting life!

31st post about my 31st...

For my birthday, I took the day off (and the Monday following too!). I woke up to morning snuggles with the owner of these tennis-shoed feet. We had heart-shaped pancakes in celebration of our special days (his birthday is the day before mine), watched 'toons and then got ready for the day.



After taking the little man back home, my parents and I headed to Shreveport. We ate a wonderful lunch at Ralph and Kacoo's, then parted ways for our own kind of fun. My mom and I strolled the Boardwalk and shopped 'til we were ready to drop. We both found several cute things for A, R, and K. My sister-in-law got onto me for buying them stuff on my birthday, but as I explained to her, they are so much more fun to shop for. I can tell by looking at their clothes what size they'll need and then miracle of miracles, it fits. That does not work out as well for me. I did pick up a few summer shirts, a pair of shorts and a couple pair of sandals that will be great for our NYC trip in May. We returned to Tyler for a delicious dinner at El Charro's (seafood and Mexican all in one day totally rocked!).



Saturday, we got up and headed to R's birthday party. It's always so fun to watch them open presents. He even acted excited about the clothes he received! We had cookie cake (my first cake of all the b'day celebrations!) and good times. From there, we headed to The Shed in Edom (sooo yummy - '97 BGs, I promise to take you there when we have a Canton weekend!). We parked next to these gorgeous bikes...






In my younger days, I might have asked for a quick ride...but not with my parents waiting. I have never wanted to own or drive one but I have enjoyed riding a time or two.



After lunch, we headed home to load the car for our WOF adventure. Here are a few pictures...






My hands in Kenny Chesney's...My mom and I before the bull riding at Billy Bob's Texas, WOF Randy Travis, WOF Sign and me with Pat...don't tell his wife, haha!



Side note...on the WOF tryout website, it said they were looking for people who would do well on stage, be enthusiastic, play the game well and who were personable. I know it may be hard for some of you to believe but in a crowd, I'm more introverted than extroverted by nature, so personable can be hard for me. I told my mom when I reserved our hotel room that for the next week, I was going to "practice being personable, dammit." That joke lasted throughout the adventure - and me kissing Pat, well that was me being personable, dammit.