Friday's Letters

Dear Friday, Thank you for arriving. I love you and tonight after work I get to have my first pedicure of the season and go to a dinner party (with wine and pizza). I am beyond thrilled.

Dear Running, Do I like you? I can't really tell. We'll meet again on Saturday morning...perhaps I'll make a decision then.

Dear Robert Verdi, I saw you on the uptown E on Wednesday! You looked fabulous and I loved your leapord print sneakers and your studded leather bag. I didn't take a picture of you because I didn't want to be a total creep. But I was real excited to stand near you for three stops!

Via

Dear Dominican Food, ugh you are the BEST. And sometimes, like last night, I get to eat you (mmm mufongo and platanos) while talking to college students about a career in higher education. THE best higher ed discussion ever (sorry cohort members).

Dear Hofstra tulips, I got to see you last night on the way home from the Dominican Restaurant. I forgot how much I love you. Seeing you made me miss you (and college) a lot. But gosh, you are pretty.

Via

Dear weekend, I love you.

Find other Friday's Letters here!

Embrace the Camera

Guys! Guess what came for me in the mail on Monday?

My free Obama Biden bumper sticker that I ordered 8 weeks ago! HOORAY!

I think now is as good a time as any to let you know how much I geek out about Presidential Elections. Seriously, it is unparalleled dork-dom.

In 2008, I got to go to the Democratic National Convention with a super cool girl who I ended being friends with (and thankfully not a total weirdo stranger). For ten days, we chased Luke Russert around Denver and acted irrationally based on rumors that Bill Clinton was in town. And then, two months later my college hosted the third Presidential Debate and I met Nancy Pelosi. And I cried when I met her. And I'm not even embarrassed.

Now that Mitt Romeny is basically the Republican nominee, things can get into full swing! And now that I have this bumper sticker (location still to be determined) I am comfortable with the swing commencing (clearly they were waiting for me)!

Just so you know now, I am in fact planning on having a party when my Alma Mater hosts the debate (again, SO AWESOME) in October. And not like a little party. There might be balloons involved.

And will I invite people to my living room when Obama speaks at the convention? Probably. It will be a little be lack luster since last time I was in the stadium, but somewhat more exciting because I will not have an elderly woman screeching "Si, se puede," in my ear for six hours.

Sorry for my general disheveled appearance, these photos were taken post run last night. Did I mention I started running? Yup. Me. Sneakers. Quick movement of my legs. More on that later.

Happy Presidential Election Season to you and you and you!
Find other Embracing the Camera posts here!

Book #20: Bloom

I've talked about Kelle Hampton before on this blog, and book #20 was her very recently published memoir, Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected.

I've been a follower of Kelle's blog, Enjoying the Small Things, for almost two years and one of the things I like best about it is the pictures...there must be hundreds of them per week. And her book was filled with them too, which I really enjoyed. While a lot of the book talked about things I knew about as a blog reader, it also talked about some things that never come up, like her relationship with her father.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It seems that Kelle (as though I know her!) has a really wonderful perspective on life, though at some points I of the book I could have done with less reflection and Go Big or Go Home talk...after a while it made the book drag a little bit.

Three out of five stars for Kelle Hampton but five out of five for her Instagram photos of New York last week, because they were awesome!

Liebster Blog Award!

My Bloggy Gift Exchange Partner Lauren of Wayferes & Worksheets shot this my way yesterday and I was so excited!

Here's the deal!

The Liebster Award is for up-and-coming bloggers (200 followers or less) that you think deserve recognition for their fabulous blogging abilities. Here's how this award process works … Each nominee should: Choose five blogs to give the Liebster award to. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award. Share five random facts about yourself.

My Facts (in case you're new around these parts): 

1. The self serve frozen yogurt place that recently opened near my home is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen to me.  

Pro: They have dairy free pomegranate and mango flavors for those among us who are a touch lactose intollerent. And they have gummy bears and strawberry boba for me to put on top. 

Con: I always want lactose free frozen yogurt with gummy bears and boba. Seriously, does WEDDING DRESS mean nothing to you frozen yogurt proprietors?

2. Fiance and I are moving June 2nd. I have already surrendered myself to the fact that we are hiring professionals and that I will most likely whine about the entire process starting now. Ugh. 

3. Last weekend I decided that I have to wear flats for my wedding. Even though I already picked out the sparkly Kate Spade heels I wanted to wear. I cannot do it. I am not meant to spend 8 hours in a very heavy dress on four inch heels and dance the night away. YOUR MISSION: I have seen flat versions of these on Pinterest. I CANNOT FIND THEM ANYWHERE. Your help is greatly appreciated.

4. The lights in my office are motion sensored. Sometimes, if I sit at my desk for too long they turn off and I am forced to stand up and wave my arms in the air. And yes, I am embarrassed every time.

5. I am afraid to get Dilly a cat sibling because I cannot stop watching the Animal Planet show My Cat from Hell. There is a whole cat socilization thing that this guy does when people get new cats and it is TOO MUCH FOR ME. Dilly might have to be a only cat baby forever.

Here are the super great people I'm sending the love to! 

1. Stephanie at Pop! Goes My Culture

2. Kelli at Chronicles of She

3. Kristen at Peace, Love and Crafts

4. Ashley at Adventures of Newlyweds

5. Laurent at Wayferes & Worksheets (can you give it back to the person who gave it to you? I don't know...sorry if this is a terrible faux pas!)

Scenes From A Weekend

This weekend I...

Went to Gray's Papya for the first time! Have you been? It was pretty tasty but I'm almost positive that hot dogs and pineapple juice is a recipe for disaster.

Hot dogs in Washington Square Park on a warm Friday is the best. And did I mention there was a BABY with me? Psssh there was! Not my baby...or even a baby that is related to me frankly, but sometimes a baby comes to the office and obviously you have to take him to the park, duh.

And sometimes when a baby comes to the office, everyone decides that you should eat rice pudding AFTER you have already eaten hot dogs. And NO you do not want to walk to SoHo with the baby to get it, you want the nice people at Rice to Riches to deliver it to you. And deliver it, they do! 

We also went to see our new house. AND it has a backyard, guys. I'm warning you now there are going to be so many OUR BACKYARD IS AWESOME photos this summer and I'm not even sorry one bit.

And Fiance and I went food shopping. But we did not buy this, because no one needs this much duck sauce ever.

And we ate tacos for dinner and Steph and my sister came over! We got frozen yogurt also, and we watched Crazy, Stupid, Love. I am officially a Ryan Gosling convert. I don't have any pictures of us watching the movie because I was too busy drooling (sorry, Fiance).

We also went to my youngest cousin Alexander's First Holy Communion. Which was in a Chinese restaurant and it was basically the best thing ever. They probably could have used all that duck sauce.

Fiance and I ALMOST called our wedding place to tell them to forget it when we saw this ice cream and jello dragon. Seriously, how do I make this happen at our wedding?


I hope your weekend was as lovely as mine.

National Grilled Cheese Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Grilled Cheese Day? I didn't either until Stephanie texted me and told me she would bring supplies so we could eat it for dinner. Did I tell you I haven't seen Steph in almost three weeks? That is basically the longest time we have ever not seen each other, even when I lived in Pennsylvania!

Anyway, we ate grilled cheese and it was delicious!

And Dilly was so happy to see Stephanie! Look how excited she is, she almost couldn't stay awake...oh wait, she couldn't.

And then we watched NBC and enjoyed our reunion.

And then we went to sleep. Dilly was a bed-hog. Anderson makes her sleepy.

Disappointed Animals

This is the g-chat conversation I had with my friend Paul this morning.

Paul: http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/animals-who-are-extremely-disappointed-in-you.
Paul: #12

This is photo #12 and the caption that goes along with it:
This sloth kind of feels like you should update your blog more frequently.

Me: PAUL
Paul: Kate
Me: I AM ILL
Paul: haha, I know

I thought it was pretty funny though

Not to mention the sloth looks a bit hipster, which adds to his appeal to you

He's the best (Paul, not the sloth) and I laughed for about five minutes. I'm back at work today, and while I'm managing to stay upright in my chair, my brain is still a little foggy from the Day-Quill so I apologize for my lack of posting this week. 

For the time being, let's all just focus on that sloth, shall we? We shall!