NyStateOfMind

Got some pictures from the Birthday Girl herself from Saturdays Party.


The Happy Birthday Girl


Me and 2 ( 3 if you count mark in the background) friends


Setting up BeerPong

BeerPong


Me and the Birthday Girl

It’s been a few really long days here which gives me the excuse not to sit in front of the computer. Plus I have never been the person to update 3 times a day or even every day and I probably never will be. My normal 2 day workweek was turned in to 5 days this week and I finally realize how exhausting it is to work fulltime. Friday night we played Phase10 while having a couple of beers and quickly moved on to Beer Pong. I love playing beer pong and I consider myself to be pretty good. But when you are only two people playing it doesn’t really matter how good or bad you are you have to play in every round.

Saturday morning I spent watching my old munchkin play soccer. It was raining and pretty cold but I enjoyed seeing their team win. After the game I went back to their house where helped them bake cookies, make pizza dough and get ready for Mothers day. I love visiting them and they will always have a big place in my heart. Once home I showered and got ready for Meagan’s Party. She is finally turning 21 and she had arranged for a big house party. Tons of food, balloons, sangria, beer, wine and everything else you can think of was there and we were all ready to party. About 30 people came to celebrate and the party was a success. 
As always our camera was left at home and the only picture I have was taken before we headed out.

Getting ready for the party

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! A holiday that is celebrated pretty big here since we have a big population of Hispanic people. I personally like the holiday, it’s a reason to eat delicious tacos, dip chips into guacamole and drink cold coronas with lime.
The sun is shining today and its way over 80F. Dropped Syd off at school this morning and headed over to Starbucks for my daily caffeine fix. Ordered an Iced Coffee and sat down to look at all kinds of people around me who bravely had taken most of their clothes off and were now showing their pale winter skin.
I looked like a fool in my long sleeve sweater.

Starbucks got a new Raspberry Swirl Pound Cake and it had my name written in BIG letters all over it. All I saw in front of me was the calorie filled cake and my two piece bathing suit and I quickly decided to skip the cake. I have been a great guest at the gym and I’m working hard to go from looking like a whale to a somewhat slimmer animal, perhaps a giraffe. After all, the coffee is enough calories for one day.


Looks good, right?

As the thermometer rose to 86F we drove in to the city with the air condition on full speed. Parked by Chinatown and started our day with flavored bread from a tiny sweaty Chinese deli. We tried pineapple and coconut bread and both of them were delicious. Definitely a place I would go back to. Started walking downtown for our destination of the day, South Street Seaport. After being in New York almost 6 years it’s hard to believe that I still haven’t seen this part of the city.
With cobblestone streets where no cars are allowed, a boardwalk with a view over the Brooklyn Bridge and a mall designed to look like a boat I fell in love right away. Walked around for a while but as the sun was beating on us we were in need of something to cool us off. Found a brewery on the cobblestone street where we sat down and enjoyed some cold beers and ciders for the next few hours.

On our way back up towards Chinatown we made a few stops; Starbucks was one of them and a street vendor where I bought I pair of sunglasses were another. We ended our day at Sorrento’s in Little Italy where we had a nice dinner before we headed back to the Island.


The spaceships from the movie Men in black


The Mall

Brooklyn Bridge

At Starbucks with my new glasses

I’m happy to say that I kept my promise about going to the gym on my days off. I spent almost an hour doing cardio yesterday; the treadmill and the elliptical machine are becoming my friends. After the gym I headed straight for yoga. After yet another hour I walked out of there with shaking legs. This morning my whole body was sore and it felt great!

Today I spent all morning in Eisenhower Park with two friends and their kids. Jessica had bought us all bagels and breakfast bars that we enjoyed in between chasing 4 kids. The park was crowded and the kids were cranky so after one hour we decided it was enough for one day and drove home. Spontaneous as she is, Jessica decided that she was going to have a garage sale this afternoon. Packed up her car and headed over to her sister’s house where the garage sale were to take place. Sat down in our beach chairs with a coffee in one hand and a piña colada in the other and as the sun was burning our skin we waited for someone to buy something. After 3 hours and a sold car seat we packed up the car and headed home. Long day with lots of driving and I’m looking forward to dinner out with Mike.

This song is played during savasana in yoga and it makes me so relaxed.

                                  Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Spent all of Sunday at a friend’s daughter’s confirmation with a pounding headache. Instead of taking Advil I decided that a few Mudslides and Piña Coladas would do the trick, and it did. Unfortunately I just pushed my headache to Monday and I spent all day feeling crabby. Monday felt like it was never ending and as soon as I got out of work I ate dinner and went straight to bed. After sleeping for 12 hours and lying on the couch pretty much all of Tuesday I was feeling good and headed for the gym with my friend Michele. My cardio is pretty much as bad as it possibly could be and I have never felt this out of shape. Well once again I’m making a promise to go to the gym as often as I can.

This morning while Syd was in school I headed over to the supermarket to pick up a few things for lunch. At 10.30am the supermarket should be pretty much empty but today it was more packed than on a Monday night. I waited 15 minutes just to put in my order at the deli and by the time I got my stuff and squeezed my way through 5000 senior citizens I was extremely frustrated. Lesson learned, there is never a good time to go food shopping.

For a while we both have been wanting to go to Niagara Falls but considering it’s an 8 hour drive we decided to go see The Niagara of Pennsylvania instead. Left the house at 7.30am with Starbucks coffee, a bagel and an IPod loaded with good music. We headed out of New York and in to New Jersey where we got lost, like always. New Jersey’s roads are nothing like New York and the State in general sucks. After a few detours, an hour later we arrived in Pennsylvania. This is like being in a completely different world and the scenery is beautiful.  
Got to our destination, Bushkill Falls around 10am. Got tickets and a map and decided to take the red trail which is also the longest trail. I felt like a real hiker in my sneakers and backpack filled with grapes, cheese, granola bars and water bottles. To walk around the whole park took us about 2 ½ hours with a few stop’s to eat and rest our legs. I have never seen anything like this place and I want to go back already. It was so quiet peaceful and all you could hear was the waterfalls hitting the rocks at the bottom and birds singing. Big difference from the traffic you listen to everyday in New York.

After our hike we stopped at a flea market where we had Fried Twinkies, the unhealthiest snack I have ever had and the few pounds we lost hiking were put back on in a second. Got back in the car around 2 and started driving back. Everything went smoothly until we got to the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey and we hit an amount of traffic I couldn’t believe. We waited two hours just to get on to the bridge and then we had yet another bridge ahead of us that also had a whole lot of traffic on it. Arrived back in Bethpage a few minutes after 6pm. After a long day we had some very well deserved beers before we fell asleep.

5 years ago my parents gave us Swedish refrigerator poetry and as most people I put up the 1000 words in no specific order on our fridge. Twice has people put together sentences one which read:  Ludvig är en nykter Kung I baren, put together by my brother-in-law who was here visiting 2 years ago. The other one said: Live Hard Party Long made by a friend of ours. Well the other day Mike decided to make something with these magnets and the outcome was awesome.

After 2 months of searching for all the pop tart flavors out there our list was finally completed. 22 flavors were purchased and the party could begin. We froze a few and toasted the others and the tasting was on. I found two new flavors that I liked, Blueberry Muffin and Banana Split, but still the number one according to me is Brown Sugar Cinnamon. Mixing all these pop tarts with some white wine and three hours later we were all feeling sick. I definitely think I will be happy without pop tarts for a while.

Today I went to Jaclyn’s baby shower number 2. Italian food, lots of wine, baby games and a whole lot of presents and Sunday is now heading towards its end. Hopefully next week has some sunshine to offer which I have been missing the last few days.

Goodnight and so long.

This week went by as fast as last weekend, and if life is going this fast I will be old and wrinkly pretty soon. Worked like always on Monday and Wednesday and the rest of the time was spent with my Swedish friends and catching up on housework and on some TV shows. Last night after dinner we played Super Mario Bros on Wii and finally beat the whole game! Feels good to have beat all the levels but now we have no fun game to entertain ourselves with. Good thing summer is here and we can play Kubb and other fun games outside instead.

The last few days we have heard a very loud vacuum noise coming from next door. Sure we have had our windows open but it was still extremely loud. Well last night when I went down with the garbage I saw my neighbor on the sidewalk in front of his house vacuuming the street! The street! I understand that you want your house to look good and have a great curb appeal but hasn’t it gone too far when you are outside at 10pm in your Pj’s vacuuming the street. I wanted to take a picture but since it was dark outside there was no way the flash wasn’t going to go off and I didn’t want him to know I was photographing him. We all have our OCD’s including me, but that to me is being insane.

Time to go, babysitting tonight trying to make an few extra $$.

The other night I got this throbbing feeling in my right arm and it was going numb. Mike was already sleeping but since I’m a hypochondriac I woke him up asking what it could be. My mistake for just saying arm and not which one he said, "If it’s your left one it’s a sign of a heart attack". I told him it was my right arm and he then went on and told me that then there is nothing to worry about and I should just try to sleep. Well that answer wasn’t good enough for me and I decided to Google my symptoms. The first thing that came up was Wiki Answers and as I started reading I couldn’t stop laughing. This is what it said.

What are possible causes of pain and throbbing in your right arm and wrist?

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• A bad sprain
• Arthritis
• Your arm was run over by a Sherman tank
• You were shot in the arm
• You have an excessively large animal chewing on your arm

Knowing that none of the above happened to me I calmed down and I could fall asleep. The next morning my arm was back to feeling normal.

This weekend went by way to fast and I can’t believe its Monday tomorrow.

Fridays Birthday Party was fun. For 1 ½ hours, 12 kids high on sugar were running around playing and doing whatever toddlers do. I was tired in both my head and body when the party was over and me and Mike spent the night at home eating leftovers and watching Harry Potter.
Mike has been trying to get me to see Harry Potter for as long as I can remember but they always show the newer ones on TV and I don’t want to see them out of order. Mike finally went out and bought the first one and I am now planning on seeing them all, in order. I have to admit it was a great movie and I am looking forward to seeing the other 4.

Saturday we got up early had a nice breakfast and decided to start our Spring Cleaning. Cleaning is not that fun so we went to the store; got a 12 pack of beer and all of a sudden dusting and sweeping became so much more fun. With the windows open we cleaned everywhere and everything. It took us all day and by 8pm the apartment was as clean as it ever has been and we were wiped. Fast food for dinner and then the pillow was calling my name.

Today we celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday with a BBQ in their backyard. Played kubb and lacrosse and just enjoyed being out in the sun after a whole day inside yesterday.


Playing kubb

Hanging in the trunk of a car with our adorable nieces

Woke up this morning to the sound of raindrops falling on the windows. It’s gray and wet outside, which is a big change from the last two days when it has been 90F and sunny. Wearing my new summer dress might not be the best plan for today but the scarf will definitely come to use.

Meeting one of my Swedish friends for coffee in a little bit and then it’s Party time! Christina’s twins are turning two and I’m invited to celebrate with them.

The last few days I have had a song stuck in my head (that i listen to with Syd) and it is extremely annoying when you try to stop thinking about it and you just can’t. Well now I’m giving the song to whoever reads and maybe it can be you your mind instead of mine.

                Bob Marley - Three Little Birds

Like all Thursdays I was off today, this week though Mike was also off and we spent the day in the city. Before we left I packed up my new hot bag, that my dear friend Christina got me yesterday, with water, a camera and some snacks.
Decided to take an early train, 8.30am, and have breakfast in the city before we headed over to MoMa, our destination for the day. Got a coffee and a bagel at a street vendor and sat down on the steps looking over Time Square. The sun was shining and it was already hot outside. Hung out there for a while looking at all sorts of people and around 10 we started walking uptown. The line outside the museum was wrapped around the block and I felt really bad for the people standing there in the heat. We had purchased tickets ahead of time and could therefore walk straight inside. Grabbed a map and went up to the third floor and the Tim Burton exhibit. Walked around for a good hour in there cramped with 1000 other curious tourists looking at all the cool art Tim Burton has made. There was a second exhibit on the top floor that was all about the human body. This was probably the most interesting part of the museum and I was extremely shocked to see a bunch of naked models standing in the different rooms. Of course you were not allowed to take pictures or video in there which is understandable.
We spent another 3 hours looking through 5 floors of paintings and sculpture before we decided that we had seen enough art and were hungry for lunch.

After so many hours inside we wanted to have lunch in the beautiful weather and therefore grabbed some sandwiches at a deli and walked in to Central Park. Found a bench in the shade and sat down to enjoy our lunch. On our way back to Penn Station we walked in to the Plaza Hotel to see what it looks like inside. We also stopped at the Swedish Church and a few stores where I got a scarf and a summer dress. Once on the train Mike realized that he had thrown out my ticked and had to buy me a new one, smart.

Went to TGIF for dinner with two friends and now we are both happy to be sitting down resting our feet.

I have learned two things today. I’m not much of an art person and Converse are NOT comfortable shoes to walk in all day.

          
          Breakfast in Time Square

         
         
          Tim Burton

        
         The art of Staring at eachother for 7 hours
          
         
         Me and Marilyn                             Man in the mirror

        
         Van Gogh - Starry Night                Salvador Dali - Melting Clocks

                          
                          The Sculpture Garden

        
                                                 Centarl Park

The sun was shining all day yesterday and Syd and I headed to the farm around 10am. Met two of her friends there and we all walked around together looking at the animals. We also jumped in bouncy houses and played at the playground. After two hours, when I was finally used to the horrible smell, it was time to leave. Once home I could change Syd’s clothes but unfortunately I had to smell like farm animals all day. We both took a much needed nap and spent the afternoon cooling off with an iced coffee from Starbucks.

Today was spent with my dear friend Christina trying to get ready for her kids Birthday Party. We picked out favors and decided the menu. We also did some shopping for ourselves and I fell in love with a bag that was totally out of my price range, instead of the bag I bought a pretty necklace. After our shopping we went back to Christina’s house and she showed me her closet (against her will). This was like looking in to a department store. If I say that I saw 500 shoe boxes, mostly Jimmy Choo and Manalo Blahnik, I’m not lying. I think this closet is most women’s dream closet and I’m looking forward to helping her go through it all and organize.

All weekend was beautiful and sunny and we spent as much time as we could outside. Saturday night we had a dinner party for a friend that turned 30 but I got sick and spent the night in bed watching Desperate Housewives. I felt better when Mike came home from the party with Tupperware filled with delicious food for me.
Easter Sunday was spent at my in-laws with an enormous amount of food an Easter egg hunt and even a round of Kubb on the front lawn. I was happy to for the first time this year wear flip flops and no jacket.

We also packed away our down comforter this weekend and put back the screens on the windows that now are open at all times. Spring cleaning is on top of the to-do list and hopefully will get done sooner than later.


Decorations hanging from the chandelier



Waiting for food

Played the piano for a while after dinner

The sun is back after 4 days of constant rain, gray skies and flooded streets. I have turned my calendar to April and yet another picture of littleman appeared. Easter this weekend and I decided to for the first time in 6 years decorate for this colorful holiday. Went to IKEA yesterday to look for Easter sticks, or påskris, as we say it in Sweden. Of course the only one they had was not for sale. Instead I bought more lingonberry bread mix and delicato chocolate ball and chatted with my new friend Carina. Drove back home and started looking through our closet to see what kind of decoration I had. It wasn’t much, four tiny eggs and a crushed chicken. I also had two Easter eggs meant to be filled with candy but will this year serve as decorations, and at the bottom of the bag three mini Swedish flags. I hung my eggs on our aloe plant, stuck the flags in our cactuses and the eggs are looking pretty under our hallway lamp. Next year I will be more prepared.

Speaking of IKEA and my friend Carina, two weeks ago while shopping at IKEA’s food market I overheard two girls speaking Swedish. After 5 years without any Swedish friends Mike pushed me to go up and talk to them, and I did. We exchanged phone numbers and I got invited to celebrate Waffle day at one of their houses. It turns out that they are a group of 7 girls that hang out all the time and 6 of them live within 10 minutes from here. I had so much fun and it was extremely nice to speak Swedish and just being able to talk to somebody that is in the same situation as me. They are all a little older than me and have been here way longer than me, but it really doesn’t matter, we are all in the same boat.

           
                                    

Here are some pictures from the wedding


Viktoriya, Jaclyn and Me at the bar before the wedding


Guys being guys playing with their Iphones at the bar


Bride and Groom


Our table, me and Jaclyn are the only ones paying attention to the photographer

Yesterday our friends Pete and Barbara got married and we were there to celebrate! Dressed in my pretty new gray dress we headed to church for a 3.15 ceremony. A few tears were shed as the beautiful bride walked down the aisle and 45 minutes later they were husband and wife.

With a few hours until the reception me, Mike and 4 friends headed over to a bar nearby. 7.30 came very fast and we drove over to Fox Hollow where the party was about to start. During the cocktail hour we decided to crash the wedding in the next room. We danced across the dance floor making believe that we belonged. Did a shot of soco and lime and toasted to the happy couple. I was nervous that we were gonna get caught and therefore smoothly left that wedding and walked over to the one we were invited to. Found our table, sat down and watched as the DJ introduced the bridal party and the bride and groom. We all watched the newlyweds dance their first dance and soon after joined them on the dance floor. Food and drinks were being served left and right and in between we rocked out to the music. A few hours into the wedding we decided to once again crash the wedding next door. As we walked across the dance floor we passed the bride who looked at us a little funny. We continued past her to the bar and asked for some shots which we were denied. I think they were on to us so we got out of there quick. While on our little adventure we missed the cutting of the cake and the bouquet toss.

After a whole night of dancing (in four inch heals), drinking and eating sleeping sounded extremely good and we left a few minutes before the wedding ended. Mike somehow managed to bring home a teacup from the china closet as a little souvenir.

Since our camera was left at home, pictures will come as soon as we get them from our friends.

Since I was off yesterday to get all the immigration stuff done I had to work today. Took Syd to school this morning and then headed over to Starbucks for a cup of coffee.
I had gotten an email from Starbucks earlier this week about a Free Pastry Day. If you came in a bought a cup of coffee before 10.30 you got a free pastry, but you had to print a coupon. Not owning a printer I didn’t do this and therefore didn’t care what time I went to Starbucks. I went to some stores first and I even went home for a few minutes. When I got there the girls behind the counter happily announced that it was free pastry day and I could pick anything I wanted (it was past 10.30). How can you say no to a cookie? I got a Very Berry Crumb Cake and a coffee and went to sit down. Starbucks was packed and I understand why. I stayed there for a while, enjoyed my treats and wrote a 4 page long letter to my brother.

Syd is now snoozing in my bed and I’m going to lean back on the couch and close my eyes for a few minutes.