First up.. goosebumps.

This song has been stuck in my head for weeks now.

 and this is what I was going to learn on the guitar, but now am not so sure. Also, I need to wait for the guitar to be fixed. 

In other news, today my dad retires. I am excited for him and what comes next. I’m also jealous that he has loved his job as much as he has.

Last night at Madison Square Garden.
  
  
What a SHOW: the lights, the sound, the lasers, the production! ..and they added in a very nice tribute to Boston too. 

This past weekend I was in Baltimore with some of my old college friends.  Four out of five of my junior year house-mates were there (along with some other college friends that I did not live with). Over dinner, at the Owl Bar in The Belvedere, one of my former housemates pointed out to me that since our final party in 2004 (it may have been 2003, but I don’t believe so) we have not all 5 been in the same place together at the same time, and so inadvertently there is always a designated survivor in place. I initially totally doubted that this was possible, but have now thought about it for the past two days. I believe he may have been right. How funny! 

I have fallen in love with THIS. 

Oh, you weren’t expecting overly expensive wall paper? Ha! 

I really want to cover the wall behind my bed in this paper. I wonder if one roll would be big enough to cover the whole wall. I should measure this. I will measure this.

In other news, did anyone watch The Bachelor: Shawn Tells All last night? What was with the porn-ending with him in the shower? Holy embarrassing! I tried to watch Smash last night and either this wasn’t the season premiere or I didn’t watch the end of last season? Oh well. I finally caught up on Homeland. I still need to finish off Downton Abbey…  there’s always more TV to be watched. I’m glad the Amazing Race and Survivor are back though.

In non tv updates, I’ve been learning to play the guitar which has been fun. 

I booked a trip to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vegas in early June and I am stoked! 

Also, these 6 videos are pretty:

This was on facebook a while back and I LOL’d.

Having lived in both places… i concur!

So in January I went to LA and posted about a gazillion pics on Facebook, but here are some highlights from the trip. I had SUCH A GOOD TIME! I will be going back in June for a wedding–and I’ll be driving from LA to San Francisco and then from San Fran to Las Vegas (through Yosemite). If anyone has any suggestions on what to do/see for like A DAY in San Fran (I think i’m now thinking we should stay near Union Sq) I’m looking for suggestions! Anyhow, here are some of the LA pictures:

I saw the Chinese Theater, Venice Beach, Manhattan Beach…

I drove by Kat Von D’s tattoo shop and Wonderland (yes, i’m a dork, I saw the mural too) and we went to the Getty where we had fun imitating statues
 
 
The Getty was amazing, the sunset was SO cool!

  
I really liked the Venice Canals as well. 

  
Griffith Observatory was neat as well. The views…
  
On my last day in LA I went to Rodeo Drive followed by a bus tour through Beverly Hills. I did the celeb house thing.. it was secretly awesome!

  
Also went by The House Of Blues, Viper Room, Whisky Go-Go and things like that. Oh, the star gate is Ringo Starr’s place. 

I TOUCHED THE PACIFIC for the first time. I’d never been to CA before. Again, it really was a great trip. The weather was gorgeous and my friends who I went to see were awesome. I had a great time with my 4 year old bestie, JJ too

Then in early February I went to see Fun. at Radio City Music Hall:

  
  
  
  
It was a good show. Later that week I went and listened to Charles Grodin and Art Garfunkel talk about the Songs of America documentary (which we watched first).
And of course there was blizzard fun to be had at my place during Nemo. We made snowmen, played with Play D’oh and frolicked in the snow…
  

Happy 2013! 

I haven’t been writing here much lately, but Happy New Year xanga-land and xanga-friends.

N.

Since my last update here I went to Mexico which was AMAZING. It was paradise. My sister and I had The. Best. Time!

 The resort was AMAZING
 We drank tequila..
 Relaxed in the pool. and on the beach. with cocktails. in the sun.
 and we played with monkeys..
 and we were SO sad to leave.

Also, I stopped smoking on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 08:20:00 GMT. It has been 3 weeks, 1 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds since I quit.

Everyone at work is pro-Romney. I’m keeping quiet but the debate recap here at the office is making me cringe. I did watch last night, and yes, I thought Romney did better than I anticipated. He also, as my friend pointed out to me, looked like he’d been chugging nothing but Red Bull for 72 hours. I think Obama should have been more passionate, more engaged, and come across a bit more like he wanted to be there. He fumbled his words and looked like he was tired. That said, Obama knows his stuff and is smart and will keep trying. I imagine the next debate will be much better. The real ‘loser’ in my opinion was the moderator who was all around terrible. I kept wishing Will McAvoy could have been moderating…

I’m loving The Voice. I’m ‘meh’ on the x-factor and I’m liking Survivor so far–though the blue team needs to stop losing like whoa, and with the exception of Skupin, I don’t like the returnees very much. Did anyone see The Amazing Race? I felt SO bad for the team that came in 2nd.. SO bad. Revolution has kept my interest so far, Homeland is awesome, The Good Wife and Grey’s are back.. Private Practice kinda stinks but i’ll still watch it. Also, this season of the Real World Road Rules Challenge really is NOT doing it for me–but perhaps it will improve. Either way, fall television has returned full force.

This past weekend I saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, Band of Horses, K’naan and The Black Keys perform at Central Park. John Legend sang a song too. It was a good show. The fact that there was one booth for food per section and about a gazillion people wanting to purchase concessions in that section did mean that we ended up in line for a looooooong time. A VERY long time. But for a free show.. it was a lot of fun. After they all came back on stage for a finale version of Keep on Rocking in the Free World.. I walked out of the park and started looking for a taxi. Basically after standing from 3-10PM at the show, I then walked 30 blocks downtown and a few avenues over. I’d say maybe 2.5 miles? By the time I got home I was totally zonked. My legs felt like jello.. and I felt a bit like a wimp. I recovered on Sunday though.. it was a perfectly pj-filled day. It had been a while since i’d had one of those.

 
Dave Grohl and Neil Young had matching flanel shirts.. Neil in red, Dave in blue.. 

Neil Young had some great moments and some very strange ones.. i’m glad I got to see him though. 

K’naan was probably my favorite performer of the day–though the Foo Fighters were fun too.

There are a lot of great pictures of the show online. I didn’t try too hard for good pictures. There were a lot of celebrities present as well, mostly as presenters. Kalinda from the Good Wife was one of them..    
This week has been rainy in New York. I’m ready for some less humid and less dreary weather… fingers crossed the weekend will be nicer! Then again, 14 days from today I will be en route to Mexico for a nice vacation…. OLE!