Sweet Blog O'Mine

Author: Laren

  • Slow Down, You’re Movin’ Too Fast*

    I’m actually listening to my body.  For a change.  It’s telling me that it’s exhausted and gave me a good dose of what turned out not to be the flu, but was actually strep throat.  Yippee!  So, I’m on antibiotics, etc. and am taking it easy.  Waaaay easy.  And don’t worry — I’m not contagious anymore.

    I used to get strep about once a semester in college, usually during some period of time when I was running myself ragged, so it doesn’t really surprise me that much that I was hit with it now.  I’m not necessarily running around that much from a physical standpoint, but I am trying to do many things at once in my life right now, and I think it’s a bit much for me.  So, I’m stepping back, slowing down a bit, getting sleep, eating right, and generally laying low, at least until my energy level is back to normal.  After that, I still need to stay cautious — I have a tendency to want to do everything.  And I can’t.  And although that frustrates the hell out of me sometimes, I’ve just got to deal with it.  Harrumph.

    * A nod to Simon and Garfunkel

  • Back in the Land of the Living. Kind of.

    I seem to be on the upswing from my bout with the flu.  Yesterday morning I awoke to find that I didn’t have a fever for the first time since Sunday night, which was good.  Although I allowed myself to sleep late, I was going stir-crazy from being in my studio apartment for two days, so I ventured back out into the big bad world.  It went fine, but even after a mere afternoon of work I was pretty damn pooped.  I retreated to the couch this evening.

    Last night, I did a little catching up on blogs.  You know I’m pretty sick when a) I have no appetite and b) I barely get on the internet.  Yeah, I checked some email here and there, and even managed to squeak out a Gothamist Food post or two despite my feverish brain, but I had a great deal of catching up to do.  Still do, as a matter of fact.  One thing that caught my eye was this article in the Observer about the increasing popularity of egg-freezing among NYC women in their mid-to-late thirties that I spotted via Gawker.  Now granted, given my age, every now and again I find myself in that panic mode:  Even if I met someone tomorrow, fell in love, dated him for a respectable time, and got married, it might still be somewhat late for me to give birth to my own child without a little scientific tweaking.  And although I think I’d like to have a child at some point, I’m certainly in no rush to have one on my own.  Hell, I still have trouble taking care of myself.  But it has never, and I mean never crossed my mind to freeze my eggs so that I can increase the odds of having a biological child down the road. 

    Look, whenever it so happens that I meet the guy, whomever he is, having a family will happen, and only time will tell whether it will be through biology, biology with a tweak of science, or through adoption, but the end result will be the same — we will be a family, and that’s what I really want in the end.

    Pretty heady stuff for the first day out of the flu, n’est-ce pas?

  • The Plague, Part Trois

    Now, new and improved!  With sandpapery throat, chills, aches, sweating, and 102 degree fever!

    Going to the doctor tomorrow.  Sick 3 times within a month?  Not good.  Okay, I’m about to make the big move from the couch to the bed.  Wish me luck.

  • Party Shuffle

    So I’m sitting here doing some work and I’ve got my iTunes on "party shuffle" mode, which, although it doesn’t really create the party-type atmosphere that might lift me out of the grey-day funk I seem to be in, makes me smile each time a new song comes up — I never know what’s going to be next.  Kind of like my life, I suppose. 

    In between bouts of work, I’m cooking up some stuff which is going to end up being either enchiladas or some sort of mexican chicken, bean, and tortilla casserole, depending on how I feel when all the pieces are done.  I’ve shredded the cheese, and am about to poach the chicken and make some enchilada-type sauce.  I was inspired by a new cookbook on casseroles that I picked up on the cheap at Strand yesterday.

    As for the rest of the weekend, Friday night I attempted to go to an opening-night party at Bombay Talkie, a spot billed as a "teahouse inspired by Bollywood  and the street foods of India."  Sounded great on the surface, but in reality, it was jam-packed, and the food wasn’t coming fast enough for me and my very hungry companion for the evening (although we did get a nice glass of Pinot Noir out of the deal).  I’ll have to go check it out some other time.  We skipped out and tried to go to Tia Pol, where I ran into a former colleague from Anderson Kill, but where they informed us that it would be an hour wait for a table.  We chose to head elsewhere before hunger-induced crankiness (and wine-on-an-empty-stomach induced drunkness) set in.  We ended up at a place called Bongo, which makes fantastic cocktails (including one hell of a sidecar) and a decent lobster roll.  I found it a little overseasoned, like the one at Mermaid Inn, but the heavily buttered roll softened the seasoning somewhat.  I still think I prefer Pearl for my NYC lobster rolls. 

    After dinner, I headed home, but caved in to that "I think I’ll just check in and see if anyone I know is at Otto" moment, which meant another glass of wine, and then through the magic of Dodgeball, ended up at The Stoned Crow, where I met up with Ned ("you know Ned through Nichelle," said Dodgeball).  Although I stuck to water at that point, I was definitely up a little later than I had originally intended.

    Saturday I had my friends Carrie and Brian over for brunch — made a frittata, which is my favorite thing to make for brunch-time company.  Acting very decadent, we made mimosas, and even had a little caviar and sour cream on rye toasts.  We were all a little too hungover to really dive in to anything but the fritatta, however.  After brunch, I did a few errands, and then some quiet time on the couch before heading to the Black Table party at Slainte.  I certainly took it easy, and went to bed at a reasonable hour, but I still had a great time catching up with some of my favorite bloggers, and my non-blogger (a.k.a. "normal") friend David even stopped by to say hello for a while.

    Tonight I’m going to the gym, eating some of whatever I end up whipping up, and then early to bed so I can get a jump start on the week — have a lot to do and I need to be energized, refreshed, and ready to tackle it all.  Let the party begin.

  • The Ups and Downs of a Week

    This week has been strange, to say the least.  There were the highs, like the amazing dinner I had at Hearth (a very generous and thoughtful birthday present from my friend Rob); catching up with my friend Sara at Dos Caminos (she was also sweet enough to bring along a belated birthday present); and a few quiet nights at home to get organized and to relax.  Then there were the lows — my Grandma Jane passed away.  She died fairly quickly, peacefully, and without pain, and she had lived a very long life close to her friends and family.   She loved to complain about George W. ("what a moron"), correspond with friends she made and kept over the years across the globe, talk about her travels, read the New York Times ("keeps me up on the hustle and bustle of New York"), and even managed to go online every day to read Le Monde in French.   We’ll miss her very much.  When I talked to my mom last night, she pointed out that I no longer have any living grandparents.  For a brief moment, I felt very empty — at one point I had four grandmothers and one grandfather (the beauty of remarriage).  She then added that I still have plenty of parents (two sets, in fact); the moment passed.

  • Show Me the Power of the Interweb

    I know that people in law firms are reading this — now get out there, talk to your managing partners and pro bono folks, and tell them this:

    Pro bono has a significant impact on a law firm’s bottom line – the most successful law firms in the country have strong pro bono programs, which give them a competitive edge in recruiting, retention, and even client development.  Increasingly, large law firms are finding that one of the most effective ways to handle their pro bono programs is to hire a full-time pro bono coordinator, whose primary job responsibility is to run your firm’s program efficiently and smoothly.  A pro bono coordinator can take administrative functions out of the hands of partners and other attorneys, freeing them to bill their valuable time to clients and pro bono matters.  Such a coordinator can illustrate your commitment to pro bono to the community at large and can maximize your firm’s impact on clients who need pro bono legal help.

    And then tell them that you know the perfect person for that job.

  • Pork-o-riffic!

    or, as others have said, sacrilicious!  My pig roast class write-up, Facing Our Food Fears, is up on Gothamist Food.  Enjoy, but be warned — the photo gallery is not for the faint-of-heart.

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  • A New Year, A New Beginning

    Despite a bit of rockiness at the end of the year, 2004 ended well and is already off to a good beginning.  My New Year’s Eve itself was great — John and Katie (from the beach house) cooked a fabulous and festive meal and pulled together a fun group of people and then we rang in the new year at a party in a gorgeous and palatial apartment on the Upper West Side.  New Year’s Day was spent at Nic’s for a leisurely brunch, followed by a walk to Bed and Bath (for a new shower curtain) and dinner and movies at Augie and Lauren’s.  All in all a lazy, relaxing day spent in good company eating gargantuan amounts of macaroni and cheese (resolutions do not start on New Year’s Day).  You can see the pictures here.

    And here’s a special calendar picture, just for the New Year!  More to come.

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  • A Year Through My Lens, Part 2

    I don’t know if I should chalk it up to getting older or being on vacation or what, but I spent all of yesterday until about 5pm thinking it was Thursday.  Was very relieved to discover it was only Wednesday, and have been very productive today to make up for my own stupidity.  Oy.  And now, more pictures:

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  • A Year Through My Lens

    As I mentioned, I made a few photo calendars (and photo note-cards) to give as gifts.  Over the next few posts, I wanted to share some of the images I selected to highlight the year:

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    More to come tomorrow!