December photo-a-day: Last week

December photos I have taken during the past week using prompts given by Fat Mum Slim.

I wish you all a happy new year and safe celebrations!

December 24 - Something you always do

24. Every day, I get on a subway.  Sometimes the stations are nice like this one at 96th in Manhattan, other times they are pretty dingy.

December 25 - Lunchtime

25. Late breakfast/lunchtime meal before Christmas dinner hosted by my sister.  It was her first time hosting, and she and I cooked a good mix of food for my BF and my visiting brother.  We had roasted cauliflower, sauteed green beans and shrimp, chicken, Japanese fried rice, meatballs and spinach tortellini, kale salad, and some awesome Oreo cake.  We even FaceTimed with my two sisters and cousin in Houston.  Good times.  Good food - and I didn't even get the 'itis'!

December 26 - Mess

26. On Boxing Day, my sister, my brother, and I went to Grand Central Terminal.  It was pretty spectacular to see in the main area.  It cracked me up that everywhere we saw, my brother referenced it to at least four movies he has seen.  This was one place that I could also remember from movies and books that I have read.  Nice to see it in person.  We went to the Apple Store on the side that was super massive and, from there, I took this picture of the crowd that looks like a mess, but is really quite organized chaos as people go to their destinations.

December 27 - How you relax

27. Despite some of the not-so-good areas, mice crawling between my feet, and trash I have encountered in NYC, there are several really beautiful areas.  This is one of the ponds in Central Park.  Walked through this area for the first time with my brother and sister.  It was really peaceful, beautiful, and relaxing to see the water, not see any cars, and not see any trash.

December 28 - Cold

28. Nothing like spending a cold night sitting with people watching old episodes of Jem on Netflix.  Hilarity ensued the entire time!

December 29 - Hot

29. In all of my apartments, I have had to walk to a different floor to do laundry.  In my parent's house I rented for four years, I had to go into a nasty, unfinished, unsafe basement.  My last place (which caused me the most drama after moving out) had washer and dryer in the unit, right across from the awesome kitchen.  So much bliss.  So easy to do laundry.  So wonderful.  I read a statistic that only 30% of apartments in Manhattan have a washer and dryer in the unit.  Another reason this place is slightly backward in my opinion.  I don't have one in the building and have to take trips to the laundromat to get clean clothes.  It is actually pretty common here to have a service pick up your laundry from your place and bring it back clean for you.  I'm sure it is convenient if you have decent hours where you will be home.  I just do it myself once a week.  This day was the day.  I always wash in hot and am usually there at off-peak times.

30. Something that made you smile this year. I used a video from Christmas night from my phone, but it was so great that it still makes me smile.  This was in the Columbus Circle subway station on our way back to my sister's place.  It was so nice to see her playing the violin and hoola hooping and just being merry.  I had to give her some money.

December 31 - Self-portrait

31. Had a slight headache this morning; it felt like someone had taken a bat to my head.  I felt a self-portrait as such was appropriate.

Here are photos from the rest of my December camera adventures: Week one, week two, and week three.  I hope you enjoyed and I hope you have a wonderful new year!

340-ish days of blogging

I started this year blogging each day in January.  That spilled into February, then March, then throughout the summer, all the way into August.

I missed a few days in August due to moving to NYC from St. Louis.  It felt weird to miss days of blogging.

I missed a few more days in September, and this past week, took a few days off from blogging to hang with family.

It is amazing to me that during this year, I have written more on this blog than in its entire 5 year history.

A favorite from each month:

• January: Worry less and feel good anyway.  I need to reread this regularly and make sure I am doing it.
• February: Should we feel sorry for these people?  A reflection on abusive relationships and Whitney Houston's death.  Warning: Kind of controversial opinions thrown out.
• March: Lyzadora the Artist is amazing in so many ways.  A tribute to a make-up artist friend that I truly adore and who it shocked me to hear used to have some insecurities.  
• April: Hoping for less stress and more success.  It seems like so long ago that I was coaching track.  So glad I am not going to be doing it this year.
• May: What's good.  This was a post where I was contemplating the hard spot of trying not to be around negative people in my work life.
• I also loved I thought I'd never catch my breathe - if only I had known at that time that I would be moving and starting fresh and paying way more rent when I was worried about my finances at the end of May.  I would have been even more worried than I was.
• June: Aftermath of a young wedding.  Comedy always ensues when I am around my siblings and siblings-from-other-parents.  This arranged toddler wedding night was no different. 
• Also I love to tell the story.  A stream of consciousness post about how me and the boo met.
• July: Pleasing others versus living my life.  I am getting better at living for me and not for others.
• August: Get back your dignity.  Who invented this?  Who buys this?
• September: Iron-teacher chef.  Got to play like the game show and made some really great food!
• October: It's Monday. As well as It's Friday.
• November: School related posts - Doing all right.  And Pranks, truancy and McDonald's.
• December: You don't always need the whole pie.  A lesson in sex-ed.

Stream of consciousness Sunday post - extended about 10 minutes longer than the given 5-minutes.  But this reflection on a about 340-ish days of blogging was what was on my mind for the day.

You can see other bloggers who have linked up at Jana's Thinking Place and link your own 5-minute brain dump, too.  Just write for five minutes about whatever is on your mind.

Saturday Quote: Optimism in life

So cute!

World Trade Center Memorial visit

I'm not a sentimental person.

Though, as I get older, the rom-coms seem to get me teary-eyed, and sometimes, I see things that bring tears to my eye that I would have just laughed at years ago.

Yesterday, I braved the cold with my brother and went to the World Trade Center site.  We opted for the guided tour and I am glad we did, despite that it was about 35 degrees, I was not dressed for the weather, and the tour took 70 minutes outside in the cold.

It was a lot of great information that I had not known about the building, the day the attacks happened back in 2001, and some of the people who were first responders.   I also learned that all the trees on the current site represent a first responder who was killed.  There are about 100-200 that are not yet planted and will be once the people finish all of the buildings in the the trade center complex.  The missing trees are growing in New Jersey so that they will all be the same height as the ones already planted when they are placed in the garden area.

I love the wall - We have only one 'A'
and we have to decide where to place it -
W_r, or Pe_ce.

There is a beautiful memorial bronze piece just outside of the makeshift museum (the real museum is not finished due to some BS arguments over money and ownership or something).

I started to cry three times after the tour when I was in the "museum" looking at the images, hearing the voices, and seeing the recovered items from the wreckage.

I think it hit me more to see the sites of the smoke and the destruction now that I am in NYC and know the area and have been down to the area where the buildings were several times.  I have sat to have lunch in front of the new building 7, I have walked past the hole before it was a beautiful waterfall memorial.  I now know that the buildings that are there now are about half the height of the old trade center buildings - so incredibly impressive, especially after I went into the Empire State Building two days ago.  The towers were taller than I was high in that current building.

It was really moving.

Santa on trial

All I want for Xmas...