Bag v2.0

Well, Big Red's getting a little rough around the edges these days, and I've been looking for a replacement. I've also been having some back problems and I think carrying a heavy bag over one shoulder all the time may be contributing to that, so I've been looking for something with a shoulder strap so that I can carry it across my body, and hopefully distribute the weight a little better.

I found this at Target the other day, but I can't decide if I like or if it looks too much like a beach bag.

Just a color shade down the scale, if I keep this one, it'd be Big Orange.

I feel like nothing will ever compare to Big Red, so my search is sorta doomed from the start. Anyway, what do you guys think?

Two years

Two years ago today, I was sitting in my apartment in Philadelphia, overwhelmed by the recent decision to move to New York and subsequent rush to find a place. I thought, if I had a blog, I'd call it Little Peach, Big Apple, cause that would be cute, no? I'll be a little Georgia peach in this rather daunting Big Apple of a city. And so I figured, why not? People will probably want to know about our lives in New York. So I sat down to write.

Two years later, this blog has been home to two sets of apartment photos, rules on what to do/not do in the city, lots of pictures, birthdays and anniversaries, some (what I would consider to be) inspired posts, and others not so much. It's brought me new friends and reconnected me with old ones, one of whom, though thousands of miles away, I'd consider among my closest. And it's forced me to look outside the blinders and see things a little differently. The "blog lens," as she called it, where you don't just take in the world, but look at it as something to share with others.

So happy 2-year anniversary to my blog, and stay tuned, there'll be lots more!

Hmm, I should have made cake...

It's a small world after all

Population of New York City: 8.3 million
Distance from Shorter College: 881 miles
Approximate number of students there: 1000

Chances I'd run into someone I know in a city of 8.3 million people 881 miles away from a school we went to that only had 1000 people: I have no idea, I'd say not much, but it happened anyway.

And if you spend the rest of the day with "It's a small world after all" stuck in your head, then my job here is done.

A Wicked awesome week

On Tuesday, my best friend Meaghan arrived in town to hang out for a day, eat some amazing food, and go see Wicked with me on Broadway. This is going to be the abbreviated version, but we had a good day together doing mostly nothing, and then for dinner we went to Bobby Flay's Bar Americain. The food was excellent, but we were just a teeny tiny bit distracted by Jennifer Garner sitting not far away from us. So close we could hear her voice. Apparently she was doing the Late Show with David Letterman that night, and his studio is only a few steps from the restaurant. She's the first celebrity I've seen in New York!

After dinner, we walked the two blocks to the Gershwin Theater for Wicked. This is us before the show. (I did a rough brightening of some of these pics cause they were so dark.)



Inside, the set was amazing. Too bad you can't take photos during the show. Go see it yourself!



This sign made me giggle on the way out.



Here we are after the show.



(We were totally stoked, can you tell?) All we could keep saying was it was "SO GOOD!" There just aren't really words. Really, if you get the chance to go see it, GO. It's amazing.





By the end of the evening, we'd had dinner with Jennifer Garner, seen the most amazing show on Broadway, eaten a decadent chocolate dessert, and to top it all off it was snowing on us in Times Square. Picture perfect New York evening.

Let's skip to Saturday, so I can brag about my husband. Scott had made Valentine's plans for then, since we didn't know we'd have the day off Sunday too, so we went to our favorite restaurant here, Lupa, which he reserved a month in advance. That place is so so so good. Never disappoints. Much like my husband, who not only bought me The Time Traveler's Wife on DVD since I loved the book but didn't get to see it in the theater, he also reserved the media room downstairs that has a large projection screen so I could sorta see it on the big screen. Very thoughtful of him and much appreciated by me. And it's a really good movie, if you're interested. I wish I'd been as thoughtful for him, but I used up all my good ideas for Christmas.

So between Meaghan and Wicked and Valentine's with my husband, it was a really great week. So good I apparently was having too much fun to blog.

Not it

This post probably makes me a terrible person, but here it is anyway.

You know Scott and I have struggled to find a church here. There's one we like, but we have a really hard time getting there on Sunday mornings. So we found this Friday night church and figured we'd give it a try. We went last night. Now, I'm not going to tell you the name, because I don't want anyone Googling that church to come across this blog post. To each his own. But I'll just say this:

It's never good when, after more than an hour into it, this is your only sermon note.

Equipment failure

For all of you who drive to work, you probably think I never have to worry about my transportation breaking down. I never have a flat tire. I never blow a gasket. I never have problems with unintended acceleration... But you'd be wrong that I never have transportation breakdowns. Even in my seven-minute, two-stop train commute, there can be problems. I can now tell you from experience that the engine on the front car can die between Exchange Place and World Trade Center, and you'll have to wait, sitting underneath the Hudson River, for the the driver and conductor to make their way to the back car which now becomes the front car and head back to Exchange Place, where you'll have to wait for the next train coming through on the other track now because the first one is blocked. (Whew.)

Lots of people around me were huffing and puffing about it, but I just laughed. What can you do? Well, besides pull out your iPhone and entertain yourself...

And thankfully, that part about sitting under the Hudson River never even occurred to me until I relayed this story to my mom later in the evening. Too bad the train didn't take a hint from the river and just keep rollin' along.