12.12.12

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Today's date and it's distinctness won't happen again in our lifetimes - the next time the stars align will be Jan. 1, 2101.  So hopefully you're enjoying this fab day (and watching the 12.12.12 Concert for Sandy tonight!) and don't take it for granted.  Just like last year, here are 12 random and wonderful things that come to mind to remind me how special today (and every other day) is.   In no particular order...

1. Breakfast for dinner.
2. Discovering how Elf on a Shelf works (and thinking it's a little creepy) but still completely fascinated even though I don't have kids.
3. Taco truck crawl and the fact that you can do that in my gentrified neighborhood.
4. Hurricane Sandy - just remembering how devastating a storm can be but reminiscing how wonderful this city and the Jersey shore can be too, growing up and today as people rebuild.
5. My Mom becoming emotional after my brother, sister and I each sent her a photo of our Christmas trees this year.  She was so happy we each are keeping up with her Christmas spirit and tradition, even if it's only a small bit of what she's done.
6. The Happiness Project. (Just do it)
7. Songs you hear again that bring you back to where you first heard them.  This one plays on the radio all the time and brings me back to our Dominican Republic trip earlier this year (they played it all day long and all I imagine are sun, beach and pina coladas).
8. Zombies and disaster preparedness. 
9. How amazed I always become at this fabulous city.  Staring out my 37th floor office kitchen pantry and looking north to see the entire island of Manhattan, Staten Island, and my apartment building in Brooklyn (pretty cool).  Jason Mraz's comment at his concert the other night that he was in MSG - even fab artists are proud to perform in NYC's MSG for the first time.
10. Navigating the challenges in being myself while moving out of my comfort zone at my new job.  
11. Hearing a full stadium chant "Brook-lyn, Brook-lyn" at the new Barclays Center for the new Brooklyn Nets.  How does a team become cool by simply crossing the river?
12. The Hipsterbread Couple made me giggle today.

photo source

Urban Exhaustion

Pin It now! Apartment Therapy posted an article few weeks ago about how living in a big city can be exhausting and you have to finds ways to get away and relax to keep your sanity, even if it's retreating to your apartment for the weekend.  Living in NYC is definitely stressful and can take its toll.  From high-stress jobs and high standard of living to the tourists (apparently the greatest number of tourists ever this year), noise, grime, crime...  I hate the honking (although I can sleep through ambulance sirens) and the $11 lunches.  I wouldn't trade it for a quieter and slower living and love the flow and pace of the city, but it definitely can become exhausting sometimes. 

This blog has certainly helped in beating the New York City urban exhaustion.  By chronicling our life here and finding hidden gems to visit/eat/photograph, it makes the city more unique.  It feels like all my own that I get to explore.  I think moving out of Manhattan has helped too.  Brooklyn, especially Williamsburg, is its own beast and even though it can crowded, I love walking down the street and seeing only 6 story townhouses - no skyscrapers!

So how do you beat the city exhaustion?

Randoms for the Day

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1. It's FREEZING!  And more snow is on the way.
2. Why do people use those sidewalk ATMs that aren't associated with a bank?  They rip you off with fees and are great places for identity thieves to steal your bank info.  There are so many in my neighborhood and I saw three people using them just today.
3. Have you seen Grandma's Boy?  Hubby and I actually saw it in the movie theater (I'm not sure why), but it's one of the funniest movies I've seen.  There's a guy in the movie that thinks he's a robot and dresses like he's in the Matrix (think Keanu Reeves in a long black vinyl trench coat).  I saw a guy on the street that looked EXACTLY like the robot guy.  I couldn't take my camera out quickly enough and he disappeared into the subway.  (In robot voice): "Please sit on my face."
4. Smitten Kitchen is my go-to recipe savior.  Thank you Yael for pointing me in her direction.  I was craving a good goat cheese pasta dinner last night and bam! she had one.  Her recipe is here.