Lake George Birthday

For my birthday this year, Nat surprised me with a trip to Lake George in upstate New York. Up until this point, I had never been to upstate New York and everyone always raved about how gorgeous it was so it was must-do on our list. Two birds with one stone. The long weekend included a mountain-top picnic, bed and breakfast, Six Flags (the real driving force behind this destination), hikes, waterfalls, breweries and the list goes on and on! It was so much fun!

Prior to leaving, Nat mapped out our route so that we could stop at a fresh market on our drive to Lake George. We picked up the necessary picnic ingredients and then shortly after that, arrived at our picnic spot. After a short hike to the top, we dined while overlooking all of Lake George. So beautiful!Post picnic.

SIX FLAGS!! I think it's safe to say that I am an amusement park junkie. I literally turn into a 10 year old kid when I enter the park. And even though he doesn't have quite the same reaction as me, Nat is slowing starting to love screaming his head off. While going backwards. And upside down. It was a cloudy day which made for PERFECT conditions in the park. We showed up early so we could be among the first through the doors. Turns out, they opened the park 15 minutes early so by the time most of the people arrived, we were 5 thrill rides in! They also had a water park, which is where Nat turns into the 10 year old. All around, this was a great day!

On the last day, Nat found a great spot where we could hike around Lake George and up to a waterfall. On the left is a picture of the drive up to the hiking spot. It was so nice to drive through these gorgeous woods with our windows down. Definitely something you can easily take for granted when you own a car and live outside of NYC! On the right is our view of Lake George as we hiked around it.



Where's Waldo? He's a crazy one!



I don't have proof of it, but I did go up to where Nat was in the last photo. However, I did not stand under the freezing cold falls. This was enough of my body in the water for me!!



This was our first attempt at a self-pic with my new camera. As you can see, we could totally see ourselves on the screen so instead of staring at the camera lens, we choose to stare at ourselves!!



Second attempt. Just right. :-)

Two Very Important People

I was beyond blessed when Nat came into my life. Nat, by himself, with no awesome family members would have been enough. I, however, happened to hit the in-law family jackpot with the McIntyre's. They not only immediately treated me like family but they naturally felt like family. It's hard for me to even think about a time that they weren't in my life.

And while they are all awesome, it's two very important people that I want to focus on. Lilly and Max, our niece and nephew...here is preview....


I miss them every. single. day. I have officially gone off the deep end when it comes to these two. I save their voice mails (then play them for my roommate who is super understanding of my addiction). Talk in funny voices in front of my entire office when they call (via their mom's cell phone). Constantly tell stories to perfect strangers about their awesomeness. The list could go on and on.

Since moving back to Nashville, it's definitely been a hard adjustment not seeing them. When in NYC, Nat and I made an effort to get to Cape Cod once a month to spend time with them. Now it is particularly hard when Nat gets to visit and I'm not there which is exactly what happened this weekend. He does the best he can to make me feel like I'm there through phone calls and texted pictures but he knows it's not the same (It must be said that this activity only reiterates what an awesome dad he will be, as if I had any doubt!). And, as with everything else in our life, we turn their beautiful love and affection into a competition! haha. Not a real competition, but one where we ask who their favorite is and try to always make sure that person is you! As kids do, their favorites are constantly changing which makes this a fun and acceptable game.

Nat was giving me a hard time before he left for his visit last weekend. Our convo went something like this:

Nat: What if Max doesn't even remember you?
Jenny: Oh, he'll remember me. I'm his favorite. I'm just glad that you're getting some alone time because I am running away with this competition.

As fate would have it, one of my favorite moments from the weekend was when Susie (Nat's sister and their mom) asked Max if he was excited about seeing Uncle Nat to which he loudly proclaimed "Where's Jenny!". Yeah, I rock. I have the love and favoritism of a 2 year old and that is enough for me! ;-)

*This is one of my favorite pictures of Uncle Nat and Lilly. It was taken on the Staten Island Ferry during their NYC visit.

*This kid ALWAYS has the biggest smile on this face.

*Napping on the beach with his Auntie Jenny

Southern NON-APPLE Girl!

I'm willing to bet that 100% of my readers already know this gem of information BUT (I kinda still have to tell it for the sake of my blog transition!) a couple of months ago, Nat and I made a big decision and decided to move back to Nashville! It went kind of like this...

*Jenny gets offered big promotion at work that if she accepts, will require a move back to Nashville.

*Nat is very loving and supportive but also slightly anxious about the future of his ACTING career in MUSIC city!

*As with most things in our lives (little or big), we talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and then talk a little bit more about the decision. All in all, I think the talking spanned a solid 2-3 months!

*Once the actual offer was made, we already knew what our decision would be and we couldn't be more excited to start our next chapter in Nashville, TN!!

*Nat already has some teaching gigs lined up with a theater here in town and hopes to stay with his agency which just opened an office in Atlanta (4 short hours away). This new move has also ignited talks about opening our own theater company, him writing more plays and us finishing (and by finishing I mean starting!) some of the screen play ideas that I must keep top secret for the time being. ;-)

I am officially back in Nashville and living with one of my best girlfriends. Nat has plans to join me within the next few months and then wedding planning, house hunting and lots of quality time with friends and family is on the schedule!

Now don't panic. My blog is not going anywhere (I can hear major sighs of relief! haha). I'm going to transform it into a journal of sorts about my life, our life, our wedding, our friends, our move and our next chapter. The plan is to write more but that is always the plan and so far, I'm probably scoring a D in that department (actually probably more like a D-). Hang in there!

And because it's the end of Chapter 2 for us, it's probably a good time to look back over our NYC journey...

Yes, I'd love to have my food delivered to your bar.

I love having visitors for a number of reasons. Obviously and most importantly, I love getting to see and spend time with my friends!

But another perk to having people visit is getting to see the city through new eyes again. It's amazing how quickly you just become accustom to your surroundings and what started out as bizarre or unusual or exciting, becomes your new norm. Our friend Luke Sheets was in town for a visit and reminded me of one of these NYC norms last night...

Picture this...you're anywhere else but New York City and you walk into a sports bar to catch your favorite team's game. You sit down at the bar and order a beer. You then proceed to ask the bartender for his binder of to-go menus because you want to order some take out and have it delivered to his bar! He would not only look at you like you were crazy but he might hit you across the head with menu for their food!

This same scenario is something that gets played out in the majority of sports bars and pubs across NYC. When I first moved here, it was such a strange concept to me that you would literally order food from a restaurant down the street and the delivery person would come into the bar to bring your food to you. Now that I've been desensitized to this, it's my new norm. When Luke visited and we went to our favorite gyro place to pick up food to take into the bar, Luke was shocked that it was ok to just bring in your own food. We explained that not only was it ok but they actually encouraged it and provided you with delivery menus in case you didn't bring in your own food!

And just for kicks, here is a picture from Luke's visit in front of our local liquor store...

SLACKER! SLACKER! SLACKER!

Let' s just pretend that it's not really June (because honestly I feel like it should be February) and that I haven't blogged in like a year. Okay. Awesome.

With that out of the way, let's do a quick summary of things that have happened in the last year:

1. (And most important) The MossIntyre's are engaged! The deed went down on Feb. 20. At our best friend's house. On the couch where the first, extremely awkward move, was made. Awwww, memories.

2. Nat booked a play, MacBeth, in St. Louis that ran throughout the month of February. He moved there from Jan-March. While he was playing in St. Louis, I moved back to Nashville and worked from my company's headquarters. Probably the only time in our lives we can say that we had homes in 3 cities.

3. My brother also got engaged to a great girl! Their engagement went down exactly one week to the day before our's did. Yay for Moss family weddings and love and joy and my dad being thrilled that he only had one girl!

4. We took a vacay to Riviera Maya, Mexico with 2 other fabulous couples. For anyone looking to try an all-inclusive vacay, I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the Now Jade Riviera Maya.

5. About a two months ago, Nat found a way to trip so hard over our entertainment center that it broke a piece off and sent our 42" flat screen tv plummeting to its' untimely death via glass coffee table. The glass coffee table left without a scratch and definitely got the last laugh.

6. My company is expanding like crazy. We have a new, awesome space and two new, awesome employees. I love being a part of something from the first stages of growth.

7. I feel kind of like I'm writing a Christmas card right now.

Now that the official slacker post has happened, I feel like we can all move on and talk about much more ridiculous topics. Until next time (which will be VERY soon!)...

XOXO

NYC loves NASHVILLE

How cool is this?!?! I know people say it all the time but it really is a small world. I receive an email from a best friend and old co-worker which came to her through one of our other mutual friends and business counterparts in Nashville. He happened to be in touch with a lady who lives and works in NYC and was arranging a benefit concert to support flood relief in Nashville. And they're charity of choice...the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee who I also happen to work with on a weekly and sometimes daily basis! Wow.

I am so excited about this project. I mean...I was in Nashville and experienced the flood first hand. I would consider it my true home yet here I was in my new home, NYC, meeting people who had also lived there and wanted to do something to support a city from their past. And I met these people, not because I lived in NYC, but because of my friends from Nashville. Talk about full circle.

So here are the details about the event in case any of my fellow NYC readers (anyone out there?) want to attend...

“NYC LOVES NASHVILLE” BENEFIT CONCERT ANNOUNCED

LE POISSON ROUGE

TUESDAY – JULY 27, 2010 AT 8:00PM

FEATURING TONY AWARD® WINNER MICHAEL CERVERIS, LAURA CANTRELL, CALEB HAWLEY, JENNINGS, MILTON AND STUEDABAKERBROWN

**ALL PROCEEDS AFTER BREAK-EVEN DONATED TO THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE IN SUPPORT OF FLOOD RECOVERY**

(New York, NY – July 27, 2010) Former Nashville residents announce the “NYC Loves Nashville” Benefit Concert at Le Poisson Rouge on July 27th. Doors open at 7:30pm with the show beginning at 8:00pm and tickets are $20 at Le Poisson Rouge’s website (www.lprnyc.com). The concert will feature a diverse group of artists coming together to raise funds and awareness for the relief efforts in Nashville, Tennessee after unrelenting rainstorms in early May caused severe flood damage all across Music City. Participants include Tony Award® winner Michael Cerveris, Nashville’s own Laura Cantrell, Stuedabakerbrown, Caleb Hawley, Jennings and Milton. These artists have also generously donated tracks – some unreleased – that can be downloaded for free for a limited time with the purchase of a ticket online. Be sure to visit www.nyclovesnashville.com for the most up to date information or to make a donation at any time.

In addition to ticket sales, money will also be raised through door prizes and auctions of fantastic donated items from sympathetic musical artists and businesses in both New York and Tennessee. Among these many coveted prizes are autographed items from Alan Jackson, 3 Doors Down and Counting Crows along with coupons for free ice cream at Dylan’s Candy Bar, Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, free bowling at The Gutter and Brooklyn Bowl, assorted baskets from various bakeries and gift certificates from businesses including American Apparel, Southern Hospitality BBQ, Brooklyn Brewery and many more.

Proceeds from “NYC Loves Nashville” benefit The Community Foundation’s flood recovery funds which ensure that one gift can impact the widest range of charitable needs in times of disaster. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee makes grants from flood recovery funds to Middle Tennessee nonprofits and/or government agencies on the front lines of immediate and long-term flood relief and recovery. The Foundation’s flood relief funds strategically address needs as they emerge and evolve throughout the rebuilding and recovery process. For detailed information on The Community Foundation’s flood recovery efforts, visit www.cfmt.org.

For more information, media inquiries or interview requests, please contact Drew Farrar at nyclovesnashville@gmail.com.

For more information on the participating artists, please visit their websites below:

Michael Cerveris – http://www.cerveris.com/
Laura Cantrell – http://www.lauracantrell.com
Caleb Hawley – http://calebhawley.com/
Jennings – http://www.jennings-music.com/
Milton – http://www.miltonmusic.com/
Stuedabakerbrown – http://stuedabakerbrown.com/

Jenny vs. The Window Air conditioner

As I see this turning into a saga that is sure to continue into the months of the year that people in New York consider "hot" months, I figured I better start writing about it now. Let me preface this by saying that I realize that plenty of people all over the world survive just fine in their everyday life without the luxury of central heating and air or for that matter, without the luxury of window air conditioners. I, however, am officially a central air girl. Actually, I might just change the name of this blog to http://www.centralairgirl.com/. I think it has a nice ring.

In coming to NYC, I understood that most places that I could ever conceive of affording would be without central air. I know, I know...Old houses, it's only hot for a couple weeks out of the year, blah, blah, blah. I got it. It's a LIE. It is now officially the middle of July and quite possibly hotter here than in the south where it supposedly gets "dirty" hot. Seriously folks...the time has come to stop playing the hot-only-2-weeks-in-August card.

Now we are very fortunate and have not one, but TWO window air conditioning units. We're living life large in NYC. The problem is that I have no experience either cooling a house with one of these or paying a bill where one of these is used. I have a very intense (and pretty realistic) fear that our next bill will be $500.00. I do have a price to be comfortable and cool and it's slightly less than that. So now we play the game or what I like to call Jenny vs. the window air conditioner. Here are just a few of the situations that I'm either up against in defeating this beast or have to consider when going to battle:

1. Do you section off the apartment to speed up the cooling process by filtering the air into only one room?


2. If you do this, do you leave the windows open in all other rooms even though it's 100 degrees outside or are you somehow only damaging your cooling mission by doing that?


3. How do you work the sleep scenario? If you leave it on and fall asleep, you risk running it for the next 6 hours and adding mucho dinero to the bill.


4. If you only run it for the hour before you fall asleep, you're bound to wake up 2 hours later looking like you just went for a work out.


5. When you wake up 2 hours later, do you just turn it back on and go to sleep (therefore reverting back to #3)?


6. Or do you just open the window when you wake up? It's still not going to get really cool but at least you're saving money.


7. Does the economy setting really do anything? The air is still cold and it's still blowing out.


8. Realistically, what is this doing to my bill? Comfortable and cool definitely have a price cap for me. I have a feeling that I'm going to be over it when I see the next bill.

We tend to section off the bathroom/pantry/kitchen side of our place since the air conditioner is in the living room, thus cooling down that one room pretty quick since it's only technically meant to cool one room. With that being said, I was having a conversation with my mom the other day and told her that I'm now officially one step closer to knowing what it feels like to use the bathroom in an outhouse...I had just come back from using ours and it was at least 95 degrees in there! Stay tuned...

Bikram Balls

I'll get into the details of this insane work out experience later but in the meantime, I didn't want to deprive you of this gem of a story...

I get home from my third day of doing this grueling, awesome, relaxing, strenuous, intense workout that they call Bikram Yoga. For those of you not familiar, it's set up to constantly be 95 degrees in the room using heaters that are mounted in the corners and blow heat throughout the 90 minute class. The only rule that they have is that once you start class, you can't leave. Yes, you heard me right. Why would anyone do this workout and keep going back for more? Your guess is as good as mine.

So anyway, home from my third class. I'm on the couch and telling Nat how it went. It was a tough class. It was Friday evening and it just seemed like everyone was beat. This is the type of class too where you feed off of everyone else and kind of push each other to get through. If you need to take a break, they instruct you to sit down with your legs bent underneath you and focus forward at the mirror, keep your focus and work on steadying and maintaining your breathing.

About 45 minutes into the class, I desperately need a break. I move into "break" position and am looking forward to focus my eyes. I couldn't have picked a worse time for this break. As I look up, the man in front of me, who is wearing only a speedo (and I really don't blame him because you want as little clothes on as possible for this class), is bending over and grabbing his ankles. I immediately realize that focusing my eyes and breathing is absolutely not going to happen because all I can see is the massive amount of sweat dripping from this man's private region and more specifically, balls.

You might think that Nat would be disturbed by this story. Perhaps grossed out. Perhaps disinterested in hearing about another man's sweaty balls. However, you would be wrong. Literally the first words that come out of his mouth are "You have to blog about that!". So there you have it.

Tip of the day: Avoid speedos in a 95 degree yoga class at all costs.