Taking a Stroll at MoMA

For those of you who immediately honed in on the image to the right and wondered, "OMG, is Shari not telling us something??", the answer is NO -- I'm not in any remote position to even consider actually having a stroller in my possession. Ok, now that we have that cleared up, I will tell you how the picture of this particular stroller came to be on my blog.

While making the rounds with everyone in New York, I made plans to see Nick, Reny and wee Ryan on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, Reny was stuck at the office and so Nick and I decided to bundle up wee Ryan (who isn't so wee now that he's verging on two full years of age!) and venture outside. Since it was only about 25 degrees out there, we headed for MoMA where we could walk around, but stay inside. (And for zero dollars since Nick's corporate deal got us all in for free. Score!)

Nick and Reny won an uber-space age stroller in a raffle when Reny was expecting and it's SUCH a design feat that the stroller is also on display in MoMA. That's right. It's actually on display. And numerous people in the museum pointed that out to me since I was the one pushing the stroller while Nick ran off in every direction after the wildly energetic nearly two-year-old Ryan.

And I guess this particular stroller (by Stokke) has such buzz in the parenting set these days that 3 different women stopped me with the opener "I know this is a really weird question to ask, but..." and then they would proceed to ask me how I liked the stroller. My answers ranged from the awkward, "Um, actually, it's not really... I'm not actually.... I don't really...." to "It's a great place to stash my purse and coat while walking around MoMA!" And before those women could give me a look just dripping with disdain, I quickly explained that I was the Auntie (the Auntie who saw the benefits of a high-end stroller as a simple storage device... no wonder I don't have kids!)

(As an aside, on our way to MoMA, Nick looked over as I mis-negotiated a curb and said, "Geez Shari, you look a little stiff with the stroller!" Well, I managed to fool a bunch of real moms in MoMA, so that's something!)

We chased Ryan around for about an hour and played many games (all involving running) and I have to admit that when it was time to leave, I was definitely breaking a sweat. And I was amazed at how hard it is to get a nearly two-year-old wrangled into his sweater, jacket, hat and mittens.

After that afternoon, it was MY turn for a nap.

Taking a Bite Out of The Big Apple

I'm back in NYC for about week and [mostly] enjoying every minute of it. The trip was borne out of business needs, and because I ended up with meetings both this week and next, I ended up staying in New York over this weekend instead of flying back and forth to CA twice. (Potentially over a dozen hours on airplanes and in airports avoided? Yes, please!)

A few highlights from the trip so far:

- Fun dinner at staple Vynl with Oda, Ally and Sally with an adorable waiter who understood my personal dining and drinking needs. (Although, I wish that when he said the drink I ordered tasted like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, that he would have ALSO mentioned that the Red Bull in the drink would keep me up all night.)

- FINALLY a trip to Otto's Pizzeria with the Kaboodle gang -- I never did eat at Otto's when I lived in New York, so it was fun to finally go after hearing all the raves. Food was good, cheese plate was amazing and the wine list was to die for.

- Drinks with Kate (and nearly Jess) and then a pretty darn good sushi dinner at Blue Ribbon.

- A trip to the Burger Joint late last night.

Wow, I'm just realizing how everything seems to revolve around food when I'm in the city... and oh, look -- it's almost time for lunch!

Wish Me Luck

At this very moment, I am taking a quick break from packing... tomorrow night, I head out for a [mostly] business trip that looks something like this:

- Los Angeles and Orange County for three days

- New York for three days

- Possibly Tampa, FL for two days

- Back to New York for three more days

- Minneapolis for one day

And then back to NoCal. I'm looking forward to going (great meetings and reasons to meet), but I am a bit exhausted just thinking about it all.

And I am bound and determined to pack everything into one single carry-on rollerboard suitcase and one single shoulder bag. (There is a hotel laundry service somewhere in my future.) So far, it's looking good... I am now the master of mixing and matching!

Chocolate Ice Cream or "Like Water for Chocolate"?

Special K was here in NoCal for four blissful days this past weekend and at one point, he made a casual remark about how many books were in various stacks on and near my nightstand (probably two dozen), how many were neatly piled on the living room table (at least three or four more) and how many were on the side of my desk (another four or five)... not to mention the dozens and dozens of books that were snugly tucked away in their rightful places on actual bookshelves in various rooms.

I am a constant reader, so it's not unusual for me to have a few books on my nightstand at any given time, but even Special K knew that something was a little odd since I literally had books everywhere and in almost every room.

I hadn't thought about it before, but when he pointed it out, I blurted, "They make me feel good!"

And that's when I realized it... books are my comfort food.

Instead of gorging on mashed potatoes, chicken pot pie and ice cream during times of stress, I overindulge in paperbacks and hardcovers. I surround myself with novels, anthologies, short stories, non-fiction and even the odd play. You can actually gauge my current stress level by the number and height of the various book stacks around my house.

Amazon.com is my IHOP, Marie Calendar's and Denny's all rolled into one. Comfort food for the soul. (Although, thankfully, I usually pick better titles for consumption than the literary equivalents of the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity.)

And it's not just that I pull books that I already own off the shelves and ponder those... No, I binge and buy MORE books. I click on a link online and the next thing I know, a box full of books shows up at my office (darn that one-click purchasing!). I walk into Costco with a list (and coupons for those listed items) and come out with another three books. I go to Target for staples and wind up with another couple of paperbacks in my cart.

So, there you go. I'm a binger. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? I bet there's a book I could get about that ...

On My Mind...

-- What exactly is the point of Playboy Radio? Isn't the whole idea to actually SEE the naked girls?

-- Why does almost everyone come to a complete stop at the start of a quarter-mile long merge lane?

-- Men who walk on stilts shouldn't throw stones... and they certainly shouldn't be technology consultants.

-- Comcast has a brilliant system where both your phone and internet come into your home via the same modem and connection. When you call tech support from your land line (which I have to do because I have terrible cell coverage in my area) and they need to remotely reset your modem, they end up cutting you off (because the reset interrupts the phone line as well as the high-speed internet connection) and they can't walk you through the rest of the steps to fix your problem. Uh... you'd think someone woulda thought of that little snafu?

-- Why does ANY urban area continue to have poor cell coverage?? This is Silicon Valley, for pete's sake.

-- Why would a guy send me a friend request on Facebook when the last time I saw him, I threw about 20 oz of Red Bull and vodka in his face because he was being SUCH a jerk?

Expansion!

A little while back, my official arrival at Kaboodle was announced with a press release, and a great site that celebrates the successes of professional women, NewsOnWomen.com, picked up the release and featured it on their site.

Subsequently, they approached me about contributing a blog entry or two and I am happy to report that my first bit of random wisdom (can I really use the term "wisdom" when referring to myself??) was published on the site yesterday.

Here is the link to the post and I will be sure to let you know about any future collaboration!

Cruel and Unusual

I'm trying to get re-acquainted with and re-committed to a regular gym schedule. It's not really a New Year's resolution as much as it is a constantly present goal that tends to easily get sidelined by work, travel and spontaneous social plans. But I continue to doggedly pursue the goal and so this weekend, I managed to make it to the gym both yesterday morning and this morning.

The gym is on the second level of my property's clubhouse and its french doors open onto a balcony area that overlooks the common area of the clubhouse where there is a grand piano, huge cozy couches, a games room and a small kitchen.

In that kitchen, the property management team bakes a variety of cookies every day and this morning, just as I was finishing my workout (and feeling pretty good about the calories I just burned), the smell of freshly baked cookies wafted up from below, into the gym and wound its way around me, enveloping me in warmth and the promise of something that would make me smile, close my eyes and go "mmmmm" with the first bite. (I am a huge sucker for freshly baked cookies, as my mom can well attest.)

It was all I could do to hastily scoop up my water bottle, sweatshirt and keys and beat a path out of there as fast as I could, plugging my nose, repeating "I can't smell you!" in my head and focusing on the egg white scramble I would be making myself for breakfast. Not quite the same as a fresh chocolate chip cookie.

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!

Just before I left for the holidays, I noticed that the faucet in the tub in my master bathroom was starting to get a little bit stiff. By the time I returned almost two weeks later, it had ceased up completely and was impossible to turn on. (Luckily, I have a shower in my second bathroom, so I wasn't reduced to trying to conduct a sponge bath out of the sink. I don't, however, have even a shower curtain in that bathroom yet, so "showering" was still a bit of a challenge.)

I called the property manager's office on Tuesday and and filed a work order. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it that day, but Wednesday for sure. Wednesday came and went and still no fixed faucet. Wednesday night, I swung by the office and the attendant assured me that Thursday would be the day.

"Your request is right at the top of the list!"

I got home around 9:30 pm after work on Thursday and the faucet was STILL not fixed, so first thing on Friday, I called the property manager's office again.

"We're so sorry, one of our maintenance staff had a personal emergency and so we are short one person right now. We will definitely have this taken care of today for you!"

After work on Friday, I went out with a good friend of mine and stumbled home after midnight. I flipped the light on in the kitchen and... Eureka! The maintenance guy had been there! He left a copy of the work order on the kitchen counter with the word "COMPLETED" scrawled in big, bold letters. I almost skipped to the bathroom, so happy to have my shower back, but my happiness was short-lived because when I reached for the faucet control, it wouldn't budge. Ugh. For the hour and ten minutes the guy was in my apartment, was he just watching TV or something?? Because he clearly didn't even touch the ailing bathtub faucet.

I went to bed and resolved to deal with it in the morning.

This morning, on my way to the gym, I dropped into the property management office (with the copy of the "completed" work order) and explained that the faucet was just as bad as ever. The attendant immediately offered to have someone take care of it that morning and off I went to the gym.

When I came back from the gym, the plumber was just finishing up and he said, "You know what the problem was?"

Um, no.

"Yeah, the guy yesterday? He fixed the OTHER tub."

Come again?

"Yeah, he fixed the faucet in the other room -- guess he was confused about which bathroom," he said with a jovial shrug.

The fact that one faucet worked and the other did not was not a strong enough clue?

Shoe La La!

Remember my little Cyber Monday "situation" where the heavily discounted Banana Republic shoes that I had dumped into my virtual shopping cart went right back to full price at midnight, like the Cinderella of footwear?

Well, I'm happy to report that they went back on sale after Christmas and they are now sitting snug in my closet, waiting to make their debut.

If the shoe fits, buy it!

Great Minds Think Alike

Christmas morning.

We are all gathered in the living room, opening gifts.

My Dad brings a present over to me and I fleetingly think that the size, shape and weight is familiar. Special K is sitting next to me and as I begin to pull the wrapping paper off, we catch each other's eye and start to laugh. From across the room, my Mom looks at me suspiciously and asks, "Oh no, do you have one of those already?" as I pull the Kodak digital photo frame from its wrapping. I smile and say no and assure her that I love it -- it's a perfect gift.

A couple of minutes later, I get up, and pull another gift out from under the tree and hand it to my mom, saying "You and Dad should open this one now." She looks at me quizically and then begins to unwrap the box. A look of recognition and understanding hits both their faces simultaneously and they laugh heartily as they pull another Kodak digital frame out from its wrapping paper -- the gift I brought with me to give to them.

A couple of minutes later, my Dad hands my mom a present (to her, from him) and with a bit of a smirk, suggests that she unwrap it. Any guesses? That's right, the third Kodak digital photo frame of the day has now made its appearance. By now, we are all laughing and cracking jokes about buying stock in Kodak. And just so that we'll all have at least one photo to upload to our shiny new digital frames, Special K took a photo of the gene pool that completely indepedently came up with the same idea for a gift .... three times.

In Canada, we refer to this as a "hat trick".

Happy New Year!

Can you even believe that it is 2009 already? It feels like the second half of the year just rushed by like a freight train. I guess moving across the country and transitioning into a new job will do that to you.

Special K and I made our way to Calgary for Christmas, bracing ourselves for the -20 degree weather that the prairies had been "blessed" with the middle of December. Luckily, by the time we arrived, the temps were only around 10 degrees F and that didn't feel nearly as cold as what we had prepared ourselves for. It was definitely a white Christmas with many feet of snow in open spaces and many more feet piled up where it had drifted in beside buildings and leafless hedges.

I was in Calgary less than an hour when I skidded on the edge of our driveway (carry-on bag slung over one shoulder and a suitcase in the other hand) and landed squarely in a fresh snow bank. (Just moments after Special K had said "Why don't you let me get your suitcase for you?" and I had waved him off thinking "I travel all the time by myself, I'm fine." Ah, ice and snow, the great equalizer.) I was now dusted in a healthy coating of the white stuff and as we made our way into the house, there was my mom, camera in hand and POOF, the bright flash captured me in all my snow-clad glory.

But after that initial misstep, the rest of the trip was great fun. We spent quality time with my parents, saw lots of old friends (high school and university buddies of mine), shopped on Boxing Day (of course!), cuddled with 5-day old Schnauzer puppies, watched a few movies, and saw some spectacular sunrises. We were even treated to a fresh snowfall a couple of days after Christmas. And we ate. Non-stop. For five days.

It was one of those trips where you don't even know what day it is and frankly, you don't even care. A perfect way to wind down an insanely busy 2008. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything! xoxo