recognition

i got promoted this week. it's good to know that i get recognition for having two all nighters and working my butt off last year. it's time to make this next year a crazy one and work even harder.

this is just the motivation i needed to keep myself busy and working hard for busy season which is just around the corner!

yay me!

nice to meet you kelly o'shaughnessy!!

i finally get to write about my dublin experience! unfortunately our trip was cut one day short and we spent one night innyc but that's what happens when you travel on standby....i call it EXTREME traveling. luckily the hotel did not charge us for our cancellation since we were still staying two nights.

so after work on thursday amish, meeks and thomas meet me at penn station and we head to jfk to our aer lingus flight. did you know aer lingus charges for alcohol on international flights? NOT COOL. they also dont provide an overnight kit with an eye mask and stuff to make it a comfortable flight. i only slept 3 hours on the 5 hours flight because i was watching easy A (movies were still free!) and the stewardesses were going around the entire flight selling duty free items. another NOT COOL thing about aer lingus!

friday morning the four of us arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed (NOT) into dublin and take a cab to our hotel. we stayed at the central hotel which was exactly that-right smack dab in the center of everything. the only time we had to take a motor vehicle as transportation was to and from the airport. otherwise we were able to walk everywhere.

first stop was lunch at cornucopia. apparently it is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in dublin. second stop was THE GUINNESS BREWERY! this building is a must if you head to dublin. not only do you get to see how guinness is brewed, but at the end of the tour you end up in this amazing room withpanoramic views of dublin and of course a free pint of guinness. we were so so lucky to be in dublin that day because it was sunny and gorgeous!

next stop is the best place for fish and chips in dublin-burdock's! we found a little grassy area and had a little picnic action!

fastforward to night time when we decided to do our very own pub crawl! another cool thing about our hotel is they had this bar called the library bar with huge chairs and books lining the walls that served awesome irish coffees. we of course started there and proceeded to hit up at least 5 other bars and didnt sleep until 4 am! one of the bars had the best sampler platter (which they called "after work nibblers") my fav on the platter were the chicken wings...id have to say they were one of the best ive ever had! while on our pub crawl we encountered gypsies begging formoney which made me and meeks so angry and in our insobriety yelled at them. that was basically when it was time to head home to eat halal food that we discovered and introduce the boys to the writing game.

the next morning amish found this brunch cafe at the top of a clothing store which reminded me a lot of anthropologie. we had heard that the national leprauchan museum was a must see so we ventured there. in my opinion it wasnt worth the money....end of story.

then we decided to go to this shopping street called grafton street which reminded me a lot of the 3rd street promenade in santa monica. lots of street performers and cute boutiques! that night, which was our last night, we went to a pub where the tables have beer taps in the center. SO AWESOME but so dangerous. we stayed there for a long time and ate traditional irish fare (bangers and mash and guinness beef stew) and watched them do some irish dancing. oh, did i mention we played the writing game AND kings? (btw by the time we were finishing up with kings we had gone through almost 12 pints of beer among the four of us.) a rule that was made during kings was that we had to make up irish names for ourselves (mine was kelly o'shaughnessy) and everyone had to use that name for the rest of the night. the next rule that was made was we had to SING the person's name.

basically....we left the bar to roam the streets of dublin singing each other's irish names. SO. MUCH. FUN.

dublin was hands down one of the best places ive been to. everyone was super friendly (except the gypsies), their accents are super cute, and the city was so incredibly chill. i definitely want to go back in the near future!

next stop....paris? barcelona? amsterdam?

apocalypse?

its the end of march and its still cold as death in nyc! is this global warming or what? this summer better not be scorchingly hot....i dunno if i can handle that!

today was the best monday ive ever had. EVER.

i feel like im constantly tired. it doesnt help that i have issues sleeping too! so today i stayed home from work and ended up sleeping 10 hours! weird thing is, im still so so tired but i have all this work to do!

a friend suggested i take vitamin c and zinc everyday. time to go buy that stuff and stock up on it! i seriously get sick too much =(

anyways, this pic is from saturday after me and james took a hip hop class at alvin ailey dance studio. we tried to pose in a dance move but dunno if that turned out so well!

did i mention i like to dance?

anyone heard this song? its freaking hilarious!! youtube it NOW and learn to do the dance in a sweatsuit!! hollaaaaa

he also has another song where he goes..."how you like your eggs, fried or fertilized"

anyways....today james and i went to eat korilla food truck. while in line, i got spat on by a homeless. ive never seen james get so mad before since ive known him. it was cute how he wanted to defend me by getting crazy korean on a my den bum. i told him it wasnt worth it because that guy was a bum and a loser. but i still heart james for being so mad for me.

and then......he and i went karaoke at this awesome bar. we spent two hours there and had the time of our lives. james says his favorite song was "just a friend" oooh baby youuuuuu got what i neeeeeed. my favorite was "picture" cuz i got to sing with james.

after karaoke we walked to ktown and had some makori and some snacky snacks. im so proud of james because he walked so much today....it had to have been at least 5 miles. granted his feet are smelly and sweaty but so are mine. misery loves company and i love james. =)

st pattys!

today we celebrate st pattys! not sure why we celebrate it or who he is, but it seems like the nyc tradition to be drunk during the daylight hours and to get CRAZY.

hit up my fav bar landsdowne road tonight and all we did was drink. i really just wanted wings and some nachos!

james is passed out next to me. he had one too many car bombs! isnt he so cute?!

fabio visits!

james came to new york this morning! strangely i was nervously checking my phone and waiting for him to arrive this morning...i think i was worried that it was raining and the poor boy had to walk from the subway and drag his suitcase in the rain.

we didnt get to hang out during the day but we discovered this awesome bar nearby via scoutmob. where was a skeeball machine right next to our table, our bill was only $16 and the food was awesome! (did i mention there were tater tots?) i cant wait for the rest of the good eats and fun during the rest of his visit!

bump in the road

im badly craving sweets! last night i had a dream that i stuffed four cupcakes into my mouth!! i hope the crazy cravings go away soon. i cant avoid that candy bowl at work for forever!!

it truly amazes me how some people cut stuff completely out of their diet for their entire life. i think at some point the cravings stop but i cant even fathom the thought of not wanting to eat sweets or meat or dairy ever again.

to me i never worried about what a certain food would do for me, whether or not things were organic or grass fed or blah blah but i wonder if i should. i always thought that life was too short to not enjoy what you love!

maybe if i learned about where things come from or what they are doing to my body i would think otherwise. problem is, i know that sweets and sugars are horrible for my body and i know how they make me feel after BUT I STILL EAT THEM. here i am trying to teach people about their well being when i cant even practice what i preach.

lent

this year i decided to support james this year by giving something up for lent. we talked about what to give up and decided on cuss words...then i decided to add more and have us give up sweets. sweets has actually been easy. its cuss words that im FAILING in. i have to put $1 in the jar each time i cuss and im basically already broke!!!

effort

when i first moved to sf i was a bit of a hermit and hung out by myself a lot (ie i watched a lot of south park online). it wasnt until i found a good group of people that i liked that i started going out more and actually making the effort to get to know people and going out. moving to nyc i missed them so much and reverted back to being a hermit. well now, since ive decided to turn a new leaf, i feel more social and think i am actually going to make an effort to meet up with people. my calendar this week has been packed just like it was back in sf! lets see if i can keep this up!

fat tuesday?

another goal of mine is to try to learn about religious stuff. not that im saying i want to become religious, i just think that a lot of american culture and events is based around christianity and i have always wondered what they were for! i JUST learned what fat tuesday was for a few days ago!!

pinched nerve

having the internet makes it so easy to google symptoms and self diagnose! maybe im becoming a hypochondriac but i was so afraid of a tumor or chronic headaches again! i keep getting headaches that start from the top of my neck/bottom of my head and when i try to move my neck, it hurts so bad! not sure whats going on but gonna treat myself to a massage this weekend to try to help it out. yeah massages!!

second chances

yesterday was the day of second chances. i started off with trying bikram yoga again and had an amazing experience. i felt super prepared mentally and physically and didnt feel like passing out this time. i think im definitely gonna start going more often!

i felt so good from yoga that i also decided to go to circle again. i seirously havent gone since my bday in 2009 and for some reason was traumatized. this time, however, was a blast!!!!! dunno if i will go more often but i will definitely remember circle as a good experience now. i felt like a grams there tho....maybe it was cuz i wore my cardigan the whole time?

wellness

at work we help our clients improve the quality of health of their employees. i think about it and wonder how much the wellness programs actually affect people. i honestly think it takes a lot of work to get people motivated and active in these programs which is why a lot of them dont see an roi until a few years past implementation.

when i first started i wanted to introduce a walking competition but got the message that the culture of the office was going to make the program not successful. luckily when company decided to do a small walking competition last year, i was one of the people who got to suggest it and actually help it get into action. it was really exciting at first but then when i saw the low participation and total apathy for physical fitness, i was again discouraged.

today i had the idea to start a walking club or a running club at work. not much, just a few laps around the good ol neighborhood or a run after work. im afraid it might be a long shot and no one will want to join, but i think ill put a sign up sheet in the kitchen or send an email around to see if anyone will want to join me.

with obesity rates and bmis (and not to mention diabetes and heart disease) skyrocketing, i dont understand why people dont care about their health more!! its pretty upsetting to me even though im not vegetarian or vegan or blah blah, i think i take care of my body for the most part by exercising, eating lots of vegetables and getting my routine checkups. everyone else should too!!!

work to travel, run to eat

today was my first day back in the office after being away for almost 2 weeks! man, it sure is hard to get back into the groove!

after being in sf and then cabo, i was not looking forward to coming back to nyc. thank goodness the weather was mild today....im hoping spring comes soon!

my week at home was spent cleaning out my mom's house. i unearthed way too many notes and pictures that needed to stay hidden and gave away a bunch of clothes! im seriously not buying anymore clothing!

this weekend i went to cabo and to sum it up, it was awesome! i tanned, gained 6 lbs, went ziplining, repelled off a 180 ft rock, jet skiied, and snorkeled, and oh did i mention i gained 6 lbs?!?! we stayed at an all-inclusive resort with most meals being buffet style. i didnt even drink that much but ate to my heart's desire!!

this weekend made me think of a new life motto....work to travel, run to eat!!!

cannot wait for my next trip to dublin!