Props to Nat

Props are given when props are due and it's definitely something that I don't do enough when it comes to my partner in crime. He's completely adjusted to living with an apparently OCD (I'm just discovering this whether you've known it all along or not) individual who loves a non-cluttered house, bad reality tv, celebrity gossip, wine by the cases and food that is not healthy for you to say the least. He's been great and that's an understatement.

Having said that, I decided to throw a true test at him the other day: Decorative towels. My mom got me/us this awesome set of towels for Christmas with the letter "M" embroidered on them. I promise you, it wasn't until THIS Christmas present that I even realized that both of our last names started with the same initial and that IF we were to plunge into the union they call marriage, my initials wouldn't even change. So yeah, I thought it was cool that I can hang towels with an "M" on it and it applies to both of us!

One night when he wasn't' home, I decided to hang these decorative towels. I knew going in that educating Nat on the correct protocol for using, or rather NOT using, decorative towels would be a challenge. I even went into it thinking that I would probably fail and not really, truly caring if he ever grasps the non-usage of decorative towels because really, who understands decorative towels. So he comes home and I gently broach the topic. I take him into the bathroom and show him my new display. He loves it of course...what the hell else is he going to say.

Then I go into my whole spill about the "new" place for his towel. We explore the rack on the back of the door and he says cool. That's that. No questions about not using them or the idiocy behind displaying towels in the most convenient place in the bathroom that you're not even allowed to use. Nothing. At this point, I'm waiting for the towel display wreckage to occur. Each day passes by and with each shower, comes Nat's towel being hung on the back of the door. Not a single wrinkle, crinkle, lump, etc. shows up in the decorative towels. Now I realize that this might seem like a small step, but for a girl who knew she was living with a very boy-ish boy and for a boy who had one suitcase to his name moving into this place, trust me, it's a very big step. I love him so much for so many big things that I wanted to make sure to recognize the small, simple things too! And for those of you wondering, a picture of the grand decorative towel display...

Pizza by the slice

It hit me the other day as I was rushing to meet Nat at Ikea to pick up a couple things, I have never in my life ate as much pizza by the slice as I do in New York! I ran into our local joint to grab a slice, got it to-go, paid my $2.25 and was on my way to the Subway. I get on the train and start partaking in the goodness of a huge piece of cheese pizza by the slice. This must be a New York thing.

Where I'm from, I only, and I mean ONLY, got pizza by the slice when we were at the mall and there was a Sabarro's in the food court. And don't get me wrong, it was an awesome treat then. Being able to purchase a slice of pizza that was the equivalent of 3 slices from Domino's and twice as greasy...who doesn't love that!

I finally came to a conclusion the other day. Pizza by the slice is the northeastern equivalent of fast food in the South! It's EVERYWHERE here. It's your go-to, on the run, cheap lunch or dinner. Each could, and at some point probably has, given someone a heart attack. I'm guessing that neither one has a single bit of nutritional value and both taste amazing. They even have a dollar menu version of pizza by the slice...it's a $0.99 stand and you have to scout them out when you're in the city.

Germ Guardian to the rescue!

So it's been too long. Let's get that out of the way. Now onto the amazingness that I would like to call "Germ Guardian" (it's what is printed on the front)!

Below is a picture of our new best friend. Since about the time that I made the move here, I have been an extremely itchy girl. And I don't just mean a casual patch of dry skin. I mean, full-on, my entire body itches and NO amount of the most deep moisturizing lotion can heal it. I literally got to the point where I was putting lotion on my entire body 3 times a day and after showers and nothing was helping. I would wake up in the middle of the night itching myself like a crazy person. Now a person who is from the northeast or who has lived here for an extended time (other than my boyfriend who is oblivious to this kind of knowledge), would automatically tell you that it's dry skin. A person who is from the south where humidity is a curse and not a blessing, would first assume otherwise. I went through my mental check list:

1. Haven't changed detergents - CHECK

2. Haven't changed soap - CHECK

3. Not using a crazy new lotion - CHECK

4. Maybe my clothes were dusty from the move, so I decided to wash my most frequently worn - CHECK

5. Cleaned the house to rid it of anything potentially harmful to my skin -CHECK

So at this point, I'm beginning to develop a rash on my chest and back. I assume it's from some crazy product or medicine that I've introduced into my life. Now there's probably half of you that would have immediately came to the dry skin conclusion and another half of you that would have taken my steps. You don't have to reveal where you stand. So now that I have the rash to deal with, I start talking about it to some of our NY pals. This is when the discovery is made.

Drumroll please...it's because of the steam heat and its drying effects on your skin. Ok, so new agenda. I set a pot of water in the bedroom to add moisture. Bam. Not a week later, the pot is dry. Ok, so this is working. We're now getting ready for the holidays and I figure that things will drastically improve once I am in the great, humid state of Tennessee. As expected, they do. This startling revelation led us to the point we're at now. We needed a humidifier. Yes, my southern friends who strive at every turn to rid themselves of the horrible thing we call humidity. We have now used our hard earned money to pump humidity INTO our home!! Last night was the first night with it. It's portable, so it's basically finding a home in whatever room I'm in. It also has a "soft glow" for night time use and a really calming sound. I LOVE IT! I'M ADDICTED! And I thought it would be a great post to kick off the new year and the posting drought. Lots more to come!

Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting 2009

Just bear with me...I wasn't sure if there would be a countdown or if they would just turn it on so I videotaped the a bit early. :-)

3 Month Evaluation

I thought this would be an appropriate time to make a list about things that I miss about Nashville and love about New York. Obviously, my friends and family and said boyfriend go without saying. These are more tangible things...



NASHVILLE

1. The radio. I realize that I could listen online but it's not the same.
2. Rosepepper
3. Predators hockey games
4. Being able to control the temperature of my apartment
5. Humidity...Yes, ladies, I said it. I committed the mortal sin and said that I miss humidity. You try living with steam heat in a dry, cold climate and see what it does to your skin. I would rather have a frizzy fro' then an itchy rash!
6. My own washer and dryer
7. Yazoo
8. Mafiosa (sp?) - I've tried lots of pizza here but none of it can compare
9. Not always feeling under-dressed. Everywhere you look in New York, people look amazing. I just can't compete (nor do I want to!).
10. Having a microwave - I realize 2 things here 1. They're cheap and we could just buy one and 2. This goes against my excitement for a tea kettle. Each of these points are valid but the microwave stays on the list for the time being.
11. My hair stylist
12. FAMILIARITY! (food, bars, roads, buildings, stores, etc)
13. My car, driving, etc.
14. Knowing someone or knowing someone who knows someone who is involved with everything that happens in Nashville.
15. A dishwasher
16. Cheap everything. Beer, food, wine...well, those are the staples at least. And by cheap, I mean financially cheap not quality cheap.
17. People talking to strangers. I wanted to give a lady my extra coupon at Bath & Body Works the other day and she looked at me like I was crazy and going to rob her!


NEW YORK
1. The access to a $25 spa mani/pedi
2. Delivery anything...Thai, Chinese, Mexican, laundry, liquor, etc.
3. Never having to get out in the rain or cold to fill my car with gas
4. Gas cooking. Love it!
5. My tea kettle. I realize that I could have had one of these in Nashville but I had a microwave so it didn't seem like a necessity. Now I have one and I love it. It's confirmed...I'm a dork.
6. Strangers
7. Christmas lights, store windows, parades, events, holiday markets, etc.
8. Flea markets - Trendy flea markets, local flea markets, cheap flea markets, hand made everything flea markets. Take your pick.
9. Free movie Tuesday
10. Reading on the train
11. The ease of access to anywhere in the northeast. Seriously, I can go to DC, round trip for under $10.
12. The shopping goes without even needing to be said
13. Celebrity and Dredyl - These came into my life since being in New York
14. Lots of visitors!
15. Cheap airfare and three airports to choose from!

I'm sure that I'll add to this list as things come to me too but it's a good start. I think it's good to do this...I wouldn't have thought that the lists would have been so even but I guess that's where the friend factor comes in and weighs heavily on the miss Nashville side. I'll see you tomorrow with arms wide open Nashvegas!

Yesterday

So I realize that it's been WAY too long since I did this but yesterday was such a random/hilarious/new york day that I wanted to share. This is what I intended this blog for anyway.

1. I'm walking home from picking up some last minute gifts. I just got off the subway and am in our neighborhood, probably 2 blocks from home. I'm walking one of those walks with an extra pep in my step. Christmas shopping is done. I'm going to Nashville in two days. I can't wait for Christmas. You know, that walk. When all of a sudden, I look up and can't even believe what I'm seeing. There is a man, not 10 feet in front of me, going into one of our local bodegas. And what you may ask is so crazy about this man...he's carrying not 1, not 2 but THREE very dead, very skinned, very young, GOATSSSSSS over his shoulder! Seriously, I realize that meat has to get into places somehow but I always imagined that it came into stores via cute little, shrink wrapped packages! This blew my mind. Here is this guy on the street, making his daily or weekly delivery of dead, skinned goats!!! And of course, their head's/eyes were facing me and just kind of bobbing by.

2. It's laundry day for the McIntyre-Moss's. Typically, Nat would do laundry if he had an afternoon or day off during the week but he's been so busy with work that this wasn't an option. So we pack up the 2 biggest suitcases that we have and head off (we don't do laundry as often as we probably should!). We get there, load the machine (by the way, they have a $5.00 machine that literally fits both of our suitcases of clothes...who knew). And ladies, you maybe asking yourself about my delicate stuff...I just do that at home by hand. Underwear, sheets, towels, pjs, tshirts, etc. is all that makes it to the $5.00 universal bin! Anyway, we then head off to grab some food while that is going. I don't want Chinese because I've been eating Chinese leftovers for 3 days now so we walk down to try out a Mexican restaurant (I use the term restaurant loosely here...they mainly do deliveries) that we've seen but never tried. We go in...I order a Chicken Taco Salad and Nat gets a burrito. We order salsa and chips, get our Diet Cokes, tell them it's to-go and pay. Everything up until this point seems very normal. Then Nat very casually leans over and makes the very candid observation...."Hey babe", he says, "do you think it's kind of strange that we just ordered Mexican food in a Mexican restaurant from all Chinese people." Yes, that's right.

3. Now the kicker. Nat leaves before our food is ready to check on our clothes. I get the to-go food...it's packed like typical to-go food in a large, white, plastic bag that is tied at the top. I'm heading back to the laundromat and crossing over the main street that we have in Kensington. I mean, this is literally the biggest, busiest intersection in town (most of you can probably see where this is going). As I cross the street and am almost to the other side, it happens. The plastic on my heel hits the pavement wrong and all of a sudden, I'm doing a Grade-A, Major face dive into the concrete. Fortunately, I was able to save my face with the to-go bag of food. As my knees crash into the road that happens to be the busiest intersection in Kensington, my face crashed into our chips and salsa! Of course, I hop up like nothing happened because this embarrassment is too much to handle. Two very nice guys approach me first and ask if I'm ok and then after I take a few steps, another guy comes up to make sure I am ok. Of course, I laugh it off, thank them and try to courageously head on. It takes about 10 steps to really realize the extent of my injury. I'm walking with a limp. Very small tears have welled up in my eyes and I just want to get back to Nat for some sympathy!! That's about it for that story. I have a huge bruise/knot on my knee and can't bend or straighten it out all the way without some pain but this too shall pass.

The good news...this made for a great blog post after a long lack of new posts!

Car vs. Subway

I had two very opposing thoughts the other day. I was on my way to meet Nat for our weekly "Free movie Tuesday" courtesy of Cablevision. I was on the subway and I'm finally getting to the point where I feel comfortable enough with the knowledge of our stops to listen to my ipod. I know this seems simple enough...listen to your ipod WHILE you pay attention to your stops. But you don't realize the power of music until you become entranced with a song, series of songs or play list and literally blow by your stop. Trust me, it happens. It happens enough that I was literally warned by fellow friends and New Yorkers that I probably wasn't "ready" to start listening to my ipod yet.

That being said, it's like Day 2 of subway ipod listening and I'm jamming out to my newest infatuation of songs: "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles, "You're Not Sorry" by Taylor Swift, "Paparazzi" by Gaga, "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum, "Happy" by Leona Lewis and "Run This Town" by Jay-Z & Rihanna, when I realize how much I 1) want to sing out loud and 2) miss the mini-concerts that get to take place when you have the freedom of a car. Now anyone who has had the pleasure of hearing me sing, knows that I should WITHOUT A DOUBT keep my concerts to the confines of my car but there is a joy that I never appreciated or really realized about singing freely and uninhibited in a car. So for all you Nashvillians, sing loud and proud for me today!

Where is the opposing thought you ask? Subways give you a unique time to think, process, stress, worry, create, explore, etc. So thought #1 (above) comes and goes and I move on to thought #2. I'm looking around me, listening to my tunes and for the first time since I moved here, really appreciating the spectrum and beauty of human interaction that I am surrounded with. In one subway station, subway car and walk to the movies, I experienced a young couple, all dressed up on their way to a play, date, gathering, etc. A father sitting next to me as his daughter curled up and fell asleep in his lap. An older couple walking down the street and holding hands. A very new couple, flirting with each other, rubbing noses and laughing the way you do when you just start to fall in love and still want to laugh "cute". A couple (seasoned couple I'm imagining) fighting on the sidewalk. A man by himself that decided to dance and sing to his music without concern (unlike me) that anyone else was around. And it goes on and on. A couple just leaving the gym with their protein shakes and super trendy work out clothes. People in a hurry, people dressed up, dressed down, dressed crazy. A model walking into a basement bar to work that night.

It wasn't until I shared both of these thoughts with Nat that I realized how opposing they are. I wouldn't have shared a space with a 1/4 of the people that I did that night if I was in my car. But I would have been singing out loud!!

Blogger Block

This is my first case of it. I want to write and share and for some reason, can't come up with or can't decide what to write. Nat suggested that I just get something on paper so here goes...



1. We had our first Broadway play date night a couple weeks ago. So Nat is teaching for a company called TDF (Theater Development Fund). They are also the same company that runs the TKTS booths (Unfortunately we get no special access or discounts :-(). He got assigned to teach a new Broadway play called FELA!. In order to teach it, he obviously has to go see it so he convinced them to give him 2 tickets and we put it on our calendar. We were very excited! So originally, we were suppose to see it on October 23. October 23 comes and goes. We lounge around all night, prepare for our apartment warming party, watch tv, play Wii and go to bed. Next day, apartment warming party starts and I hear someone talking about another Broadway play that they saw. That's when it hits me....we COMPLETELY forgot to go see FELA! Seriously, F.O.R.G.O.T. How does that even happen? And to top it off, we literally sat around all night on Friday. Long story short, Nat tells a slightly exaggerated story so that 1) he doesn't lose his job before it begins and 2) we get tickets to go see it again.

We finally went to the show the following Tuesday, October 27 and let me say, it was AMAZING! I had no idea (except for what I read on their website) what it was going to be about. It's basically a play that is set in the last night of Fela Kuti's club, The Shrine, in Nigeria. Fela created an amazing style of music called Afrobeat. He was also a huge human rights activist, had 27 wives and formed a republic in Nigeria that he declared completely independent from the Nigerian State. It was pretty amazing. TONS of energy and singing and dance and awesomeness and crowd participation. Since it's fairly new to Broadway, tickets will most likely be discounted at the TKTS booths for some time. I would really suggest seeing it if you're in town.

2. I saw my first fight on the Subway. Between 2 women. At 10 am. Seriously. I was on my way to my first client meeting in the city and the two women, literally sitting across from me, starting yelling at each other. The train was pretty crowded and apparently woman A (as I will call her) coughed or sneezed and didn't cover her mouth/nose. Now woman B had her 2 kids with her and that obviously didn't sit well. She turned to woman A and told her that she needs to cover her mouth next time. Woman A protested and declared that she did cover her mouth and that Woman B should mind her own business. From there, it just proceeded to escalate (all while Woman B's two kids sat quietly next to her). Woman B is yelling and at one point says "You better watch what you say because you never know when you're going to run into a crazy person. And I'm a crazy bitch!" They continued to yell for another couple stops. Once they were done, they both turned in their seats, woman A started reading her paper, woman B started talking to her kids and it was over. Neither one moved their seats or acted like anything happened. Note to self: always cover your mouth/nose on the Subway!