Ramble Ramble

It has been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted any photos on this site. I’ve had all these photos from my trip to New York just stashed in my camera, but I’ve been too lazy to bother with any photo editing. Finally today I said, “ENOUGH!” If I can’t make myself edit the photos, then I should at least put up the SOC shots. Maybe I’ll do a followup later with some afters of these with photo edits, but for now, enjoy a brief look at New York with no Photoshop magic to make them super pretty.

Today, I didn’t have to be anywhere for work. No conference, no trade show, nothing. It was glorious–I got to sleep in (ahhhh), I met a friend for lunch, and I had a leisurely afternoon all to myself. My original plan was to spend the afternoon shooting pictures around New York, but I gave that up pretty quickly due to cloudy skies and wind gusts up to 50 mph.

Being back in New York is such a strange, surreal experience for me. I lived here for 3 years, and because it’s such a compact city that requires walking everywhere, it’s more familiar to me than the San Diego area. In some ways, I’m not sure I’ll ever be as familiar with another city as this one–or parts of this one anyway.  

I’m in midtown, which is where I worked, so I’m by a lot of old lunch haunts. I’ve got a list of favorite restaurants to hit up before I leave. I made sure to go by some of my favorite spots today after lunch–buildings I love, parks I miss, favorite neighborhoods, etc. It’s a reminder of all the amazing things I miss about New York.

Yes, I do miss things about New York. I miss the access, the ability to find food at midnight, the energy, the mix of cultures, the variety of life here. I’m reminded of all these amazing things whenever I come back to the city, reminded of those things I loved about living here.

Of course, there are more things I DON’T miss about New York…or rather, things that are still strong enough for me to know I never want to live here again. But it is nice to remember and reminisce about the good and amazing things about this city, the things that I miss.

Oh, my poor, sad, neglected blog. I promise, I still love you, even though I’m barely around anymore. I promise, soon I’ll be back to my normal posting, back to commenting on other blogs, back to participating in various online communities. Soon darling, soon.

I’m buried neck deep in work these days. In a little less than two weeks, my company will be attending one of the two trade shows we take part in every year. It’s one of my larger responsibilities, planning and executing a successful booth, marketing, travel, scheduling, etc, etc, etc. It’s also tedious and irritatingly time consuming. We’re winding down on the planning portion of things, and will move into the “standing in a booth for 9 hours a day at the show” portion of things in a mere matter of days. Ah, my feet already hurt thinking about it.

Of course, this particular trade show is in New York. I do like having the opportunity to go back to the city at least once a year, to revisit some of my favorite restaurants (mmmm, Le Bonne Soupe here I come) and haunts (Central Park, I’m hoping you and me and my camera have a rendezvous coming). And oh, the bagels. How I miss the bagels!

But does it have to be in February? I mean, really? I moved away from the city in VERY large part due to my extreme dislike of the winter, and yet I’m forced to return every February now. Have I mentioned that none of my old winter clothes fit me anymore? Have I mentioned that I live in Southern California, so the idea of buying clothes just for this trip drives me insane, as it is almost literally the only time in the year I’ll wear them? Why can’t this event be in September or May?

Normally, I wouldn’t be too worried about the weather/clothing issue. It’s just a week, no biggie, I can figure it out. But this year, I’ve got a bonus coming to me. This year, I will be in New York for 12 whole days. As luck would have it, the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference falls right before my trade show. I somehow convinced my company that this was a worthwhile expenditure, worthy of the impossible to find budget dollar (woohoo!). So I’ll be at that, followed directly by the trade show. Um yeah, 12 days in New York. With approximately one sweater left in my arsenal, and a distinct lack of other cold weather clothing–particularly business appropriate cold weather clothing. I’m sorta screwed. Here’s hoping that New York experiences an unseasonable warm snap in the next two weeks (hahahahahahahahaha!).

So yeah, these two things together are making things a bit hectic around these parts. Posting will probably continue to be light until I get back and get recovered from that trip…I can’t wait for it all to be over!

After 3 1/2 years, today is our last full day in the New York metro area. WOOHOO!

We’ve been crazy busy the last week or two, what with the going away parties, the packing, the drinking, the last days of work, the art sales, the drinking, the packing, the trying to do some of our favorite New York things again, the packing, the packing and oh, did I mention the packing?  We’re probably about 90% done with the packing–but it’s all the stuff that we actually need till the last minute (like the computer, bed, etc.)  We’ll finish it all up today.

It’s been emotional at moments, but there’s been so much to do that we haven’t really had time for it to soak in…I keep saying it’s going to hit somewhere around Ohio.

So today being our last day, we’re going to head into the city one more time…eat some, drink some, shop some ( I need new jeans!), take some photos…then we’ll have dinner/drinks with my favorite person in Jersey…then we’ll finish packing (way to save it to the last minute, huh?).

Tomorrow we pack up and head into the sunset –well, hopefully we’ll drive off earlier than that…we’re planning for the trip to take 5-6 days depending on weather/traffic & how much we actually feel like driving each day. A brief stopover in Las Vegas (long enough to pick up furniture from the in-laws, much as I might wish it were just for fun), and poof! we’re there.

My next post will be from my new more westerly location!

Woohoo!

Went out to lunch with a coworker today (it’s so dead around here, we thought a nice lunch out would do us good)…the food was wonderful, but I’m not so sure leaving the building was worth it.

4 days before Christmas, midtown Manhattan is overrun with tourists. It’s like a horror movie where all the cockroaches take over the world. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand the pleasures of touristy New York, particularly at the holidays. But there was many a moment where the urge to push people in front of oncoming buses was almost stronger than I could resist. With the strollers and the grandmas and the shopping bags and mosey-ing and the deer-in-the-headlights look and the where are we?’s and the where is the tree?’s and the I’m-stopping-right-where-I-stand-in-the-damn-middle-of-the-sidewalk-to-take-a-picture (which, by the way, will never NOT have other people in it. Unless you’re willing to wait until around 3 am. But 1:30 pm on a weekday, there’s no way)–it’s lucky there wasn’t a bloodbath.

Ah, 3 1/2 days in San Antonio–please don’t make me leave the safety of my mom’s house, far far away from people! Maybe then I can get in the holiday spirit, and not just want to kill folks.