The Weather Is My Friend

I will not be a victim of the weather but a friend of weather. Yes, although the midwest snow storm has turned me into a standby blogging storm, I will rejoice in the snow's beauty and remember last weekend's happy snow shenanigans.

Wake Me Up Before You Gogo On United Airlines

I woke up at 3 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight at JFK airport with my mom. My mommy works for United Airlines, so we fly standby, meaning I don't get to go home unless there's an empty seat on the plane. It's currently 10:30 a.m. and I'm. still. here. After being denied a seat on over six flights, I'm starting to lose focus on the mission at hand (getting home) and start magazine reading at the Hudson News and counting how many black-tight-leather-jacket-wearing fashionistas I see carrying a giant bottle of water onto the plane. Nine.

Other more exciting things that have happened the past seven hours at the United terminal is the introduction of Gogo, an inflight Wi-Fi service. Dressed in lime-green branded polos, Gogo girls (no, not the type you're thinking of) were passing out first-time FREE trial cards to United passengers.

Too bad I have yet to be 'inflight', but if any of you are flying United on a Gogo-capable flight, use the promo code UATRYGOGO for a FREE trial. The promotion ends 12/31/2009. Gogo works on smartphones too.

Meet My Snowman, Buddy

Meet Buddy (yes he was named after Elf) the first snowman I have ever made and the BEST SNOWMAN EVER! He's pretty hot for something made of ice.You can visit Buddy (or what's left of him) at Tompkins Square Park. Happy Holidays!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Snow harder NYC!

East Village's Plump Dumpling Has A New Home

Starting tomorrow you can enjoy your favorite meat dumplings or curry noodles at Plump Dumpling's new location on the corner of 11th St and 2nd Ave, literally 20 feet from its original location. The new location is bigger with more seating area (no more rubbing elbows with your neighbor) and is opened later until 1 a.m.!!! The new spot should be a hit, even more than the old one already is.

Left Holiday Party, Found Free CDs On My Doorstep

I left a holiday party early tonight in practice of self-restraint and an attempt to get rest for a long week of work (and more holiday parties). Santa must have noticed my 'nice' behavior, because sitting on my front door step was an awesome collection of CDs--Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Bowie, Hole, Iggy Pop, Pixies, Gossip, Smithereens...

No seriously, this is the best collection of free CDs I have ever found. High Five to being good!

Celebrate Santacon with FREE Coke Minis!

SO MUCH CHRISTMAS SPIRIT in New York today, as it was the annual NYC SantaCon! From my observation, SantaCon is a worldwide celebration where people of all ages, races and sexual preferences dress in Santa outfits and convene to spread the holiday spirit with one to many spirits! I have never seen so much red and white and cheering in one place outside of a BU hockey game. Below are pics taken at Washington Square Park.
Coca-Cola also introduced its new product the COKE MINI today! 90 calories of Coca-cola in a 7.5 oz can. Street teams around Union Square gave out massive amounts of Coke Minis. A move to build awareness of the product during a time where people are calorie-conscious from all the holiday feasting. Coke Minis are currently only being introduced to New York City and Washington D.C., while the rest of the country will be able to purchase the drink in March 2010. The best part is Coke Minis make great chasers to Santa's whiskey flask.

Party Like It's AOL!

I have been against cases of re-branding in the past, but this time I feel differently about AOL's new, more-modern identity. Having worked on a campaign for AOL Instant Messenger in college for the National Student Campaign (click here for our plansbook) and spending a year figuring out how to save the dated company--I'm rooting for AOL to succeed. This past Thursday, AOL is back to being an independent company, splitting from Time Warner, and what better way to celebrate a breakup than with a huge party at the New York Stock Exchange with P.Diddy?!?

That's right. AOL or Aol. or whatever is it is making a comeback with a big bang and big attitude on the stock exchange floor with celebrities like P. Diddy and Anna Wintour. I like the use of white space and splashes of color on the homepage and am excited to see what other changes will help the brand regain (a part or all) its once-omnipresence.

Holy BOW-loney

My favorite--bows!

DVF

Forever 21

Agent Provocateur

Topshop

Last but not least...

Kate Spade

First Snow of Winter 09

This is the first time that I have not seen snow until December. I guess I sort of cheated too, since I went to Boston last weekend and saw my first snow of the winter there. The snow started in the afternoon and went on all night. There was a few inches that stuck to the ground, enough to form snowballs and throw them at cars.

The Long-Awaited Halloween Jai Ho Dance

This Halloween history was made. The media department at Digitas NY won the war against the S&A (strategy & analysis) team for Best Group Costume at the annual Digitas Halloween party. Finally S&A's winning streak is over!! The media performance revolved around a romance between an Indian Vampire and a Jewish Werewolf (don't ask.) and began with a pre-filmed skit, which I will try to get a hold of, and ended with Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire's Jai Ho. Check out the Jai Ho dance here:

The competition was close, as S&A did Dirty Dancing meets Single Ladies meets VMA Kanye meets Lady Gaga, but I'm glad MEDIA WON because we put a lot of work into practicing the dance.

Red Hot Hockey: BU v. Cornell at MSG

Last night was the first time I've stepped in Madison Square Garden for a hockey game since two years ago at the first Red Hot Hockey BU/Cornell matchup. With a 3-3 tie, I left MSG last night feeling a lot less pumped compared to the last Red Hot Hockey. To be honest, I'm just glad BU was able to tie it up and play more aggressively in the third period. It would have been nice to win in OT, but I was satisfied by the team's performance in the end, outshooting Cornell 13-3.

Nevertheless, with a sold-out crowd of 18,000, the game was fun and nail-biting--everthing I love about going to hockey games.
Now, let's hope BU can keep up the momentum we saw in the third period to this weekend's game against BC, the first time BU is playing its rival (BOOOOO) this season. See you at Agganis Saturday!

Winter Berries, a Floral Must-Have

I LOVE WINTER BERRIES, and all it's pretty plump red roundness. My adoration for winter berries started in the Winter of '05 while serving wine and champagne at an American Bar Association cocktail party in a five-story Beacon Hill brownstone, and I saw a giant 3-foot wide glass vase filled with submerged winter berries--one glance at that quintessential Christmas centerpiece and I was obsessed.

Four years later, I decided to make myself a winter berry arrangement!! The Union Square Saturday Farmer's Market is a great place to get fresh, seasonal flowers. I bought a thick bunch of beautiful winter berries for $15.

The key to a good arrangement is getting the right vase. I suggest a tall, heavy, clear, simple shaped (cylindrical, rectangular or square) vase.
The guy that sold the berries said it should last for months; however, for me, it only lasted two and a half weeks before the berries started to shrivel and lose it's roundness.
To liven up my shriveled berries, I bought a bunch of Christmas tree branches ($3) and white and purple kale stems ($4), also from the Farmer's Market. The arrangement came out very festive and was cheap, so if you're looking for an easy way to dress up your apartment, think WINTER BERRIES.

I Frequent The Dog Park

Greenhouse? 1Oak? Bungalow 8? Nope. There's no place more "happening" than Tompkin's Square Dog Park.

After living three months in East Village, I have realized there are two types of people in New York City:
1) Those who own dogs, and
2) Those who sadly don't own dogs.

You're either in or you're out--literally. Dog parks and their cute, painted wooden benches invite all dog-owners (old, hip, fratty, married, single & ready to mingle) to lounge in this happy land where cute, furry things frolic about, while non-dog owners (a.k.a. me) are drawn to the park like flies and watch from the fences. I frequent the dog park so much, that I have given the 'regulars' names, such as 'Manbearpig' (shown below). I know the dog does not look like a man-bear-pig--it's more bear than anything--but bear-pig-dog just doesn't have the same ring to it.On a nice, sunny weekend afternoon, I recommend stopping by Tompkin's Square Dog Park for a few minutes. Chances are you'll see some dog-on-dog action and dog owner drama, and then you will understand why this place is awwwwwesome.

November Babies **Updated**

Thanks to Valentine's Day (and all the lingerie that comes with it), November is the busiest birthday month ever!! I haven't had time to do much of anything but eat large dinners, drink excessively and celebrate the births of good friends and myself! I turned 23 this past Wednesday on Veteran's Day and am sensing that '23' will be the year of 'maturity' (as opposed to '21 year of recklessness' or '22 year of reckless recovery').

Either way, my birthday was great and I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and those who made it out to my birthday dinner at Carmine's!

Shout out to all my dearest November Babies: Ilana Fried, Lauren Kobayashi, Tim Holley, Charlie Field, Shelby Inouye (TWIN!), Nina Cromeyer (celebrate tonight!), Stacey Shiigi and Ravi Heugle.

Birthday Recaps:
Ilana's - Delicious Italian dinner at Tony Di Napoli's then FREE World Series Showing at Yankee Stadium
Ariel, Ilana & TammyTim's - About to down a Four Horsemen at Pianos in the LES, then Cake ShopME! - Family-style Italian dinner at Carmine's on the Upper West Side. Ruchy & Steph
Larissa, Tiff & Nina
Jason & Hannah
Thank you Sean and everyone for an amazing, food-coma dinner!I woke up the morning after at 4 a.m. still in my work clothes, bobby-pins protruding from my head, passed out from a ginormous meal of complex carbs and was quite happy that I passed out on my birthday the 'mature' way.

**Updated 11/15 - Happy Birthday Nina!!
Here's some photos from 80s Night at Pyramids

Reading Infidelity: Eclipse, Burn the Boats, A.H.W.O.S.G.

Usually, I'm a one-book girl. I don't start a book until I'm done with the book I'm reading; however, desperate circumstances and timely events has caused me to abandon my literary monogamy. I checked out three books this weekend and am very satisfied:

1) Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer I'll be frank, it's not the writing that keeps me reading (I take day-long breaks between chapters to check that my brain is still there and purge all the guilt I have for reading the chapter) but the curiosity of what is to happen next to Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the next Twilight installments?? I mean, aren't you curious? Does Edward ever pop Bella's vampire cherry and turn her into a vampire? Or will Bella ever eat a human? I don't know, this series is absurdly absurd. It's popularity dumbfounding. And, my 11-year old brother sent me the series in a care package.

2) Burn the Boats by Scott Weighart
This is my most anticipated read out of the three. I went all the way to Boston to get it at last weekend's BU v. Michigan game at Agganis Arena, which we won (Wut!Wut!). Boy have I been waiting to relive the past season in book form with a 16-page photo insert. I fought through nausea on the Fung Wah bus to start reading, and in the first chapter, I was already shedding tiny tears. The book recounts the road leading to the national championship starting with the off season. Hearing the players' personal account of the journey, the hard work and team building excercises that went on behind the scenes makes every game of last season even more special. As a fan, I greatly appreciate Weighart's effort to capture the magic that was last year's seven championship season, because I know from experience--you can't put into words what it feels like to be down two goals and then win it ALL in less than a minute in the last period. It's like a heart attack, but the good kind.

3) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
I stole this book from my friend's coffee table. He said it's been sitting there for three years and I was free to take it (so maybe I didn't steal it). Again (to explain Eclipse), I like free reading material. A.H.W.O.S.G. is a memoir but unlike any memoir I have ready before. I can't explain how it is because it would be complicated, but Eggers basically breaks all conventions of how a book is organized and written and creates a very entertaining, smart and funny book. I haven't gotten too far (since I'm juggling between books--man, polygamy is hard!), but I can tell you this guy is a genius.

All in all, I think I'm going to commit to Burn the Boats first. You know how I like them hockey books and an easy read.

Making Time for 2009-2010 BU Hockey

BU lost its home opener to Notre Dame tonight, 3-0. The first shut out against Goalie Millan I can think of. But like a true Terrier fan, we take the losses with the wins and look forward to future games! It's hard to replicate the significance of every game last season leading up to the National Championship, but there ARE many BIG games this season with Red Hot Hockey at MSG and BU vs. BC at Fenway. It's another exciting year filled with big rivalries and high-blood pressure games, and I've secured tickets for the games highlighted below:

163, Not For Hawaii

I am very upset that Hawaii's public schools has cut 17 Friday's out of the current school year because the State does not have enough money to pay its teachers. Seventeen entire days of education gone, making the school year down to 163 days, one of the shortest school year in the country.

Do you know how many years of American history, algebraic equations and recesses this equals? An invaluable amount of knowledge and experiences that's unfortunately loss to public school students like my younger brother Zadrian (11 years-old) and sister Zoe (5 years-old). Very likely these 17 long weekends will be spent watching Hannah Montana or iCarly--I foresee long-term consequences to this seemingly short furlough.

It is very sad that Hawaii's public school students are getting the short end of the stick, when it already suffers from a mediocre education system. Parents are coordinating with Afterschool Programs to keep the schools open on the furloughed Fridays, but my guess is legal issues will make opening the school very unlikely.

It's important that those in Hawaii spread the word and concern: 163, Not For Hawaii. We Want 180 Too, Put Our Kids Back in School.

I can't help that my inner-marketer is so dominant.

Go Watch NASCAR

One thing I love about my job is discovering new markets and industries I otherwise would never know about, such as the mommy bloggers, small business owners and NASCAR FANS!! Tonight, I attended a reception hosted by the New York Times introducing a very unlikely partnership between the NYT, NASCAR, Tommy Baldwin Racing and Guy Fieri. NASCAR fans are brand-loyal, have a 50K+ average income and there's A LOT of them. The best part of the reception is Guy Fieri--he's hilarious, down-to-earth and cooked up some of his famous Cajun Chicken Alfredo.
I'm already a fan of fast cars, so this can't be a bad discovery can it?