Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Best of 2009

As the final moments of 2009 slip away into the past, many a publication are taking the time to reflect on what went down this past year. Well, I know that we all pay a certain regard to these lists, but I think I am way more qualified to determine what really was the best of 2009. Why? Because I am awesome. Duh. Here is my personal best of 2009…just a few of my favorite things…

Best Album – Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack
Karen O and the Kids delivered a stellar soundtrack to compliment one of my favorite movies this year. The childlike energy of each song wins this album a constant in my car; which says a lot considering Britney was the only one to ever have a permanent CD slot.

Best Song – Nothing Compares to You, as preformed by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

This is my go to jam out song. While on lap two of South Terminal at the airport last week, I was sitting patiently with about 1,200 other newly dubbed chauffeurs for the evening. Growing bored, I decided to entertain myself by completely rocking out to this song. On the third time the song was playing, an Atlanta Police officer tapped my window and told me I was having too much fun for being stuck waiting at the airport. Prince and Sinead have nothing on the Gimme Gimmes.

Best Concert – Britney Spears
The Circus came to town and Mary and I basically wanted to join and runaway. BSpears for life. Don’t hate.

Best Movie – 500 Days of Summer When I went to see this movie, I had never heard of it let alone seen a preview. Low expectations lead me to great results. Cute, offbeat, quirky, unconventianal romantic comedy. Comes out on DVD soon. Eeek!

Best Bar – Graveyard
Fun DJ spinning my favorite dance tunes? Check. 70s porn on the big screen? Check. Plenty of seating? Check. Best mix of people in Atlanta? Check. Ode to Baby Jesus Bunnies? Oh check yes. Always a fantastic time whether it’s team blackout or just a single beer kinda night.

Best Restaurant – Atmosphere

This tiny remolded house is home to the best French food this side of Peachtree. Well equppied with authentic Frenchies staffing both front and back of the house, adorable little dining areas, perfect lighting and hands down the best.damn.escargot.ever. Very romantic.

Best Festival – Luckyfest
I clearly had a blast. Just around the corner!

Best Trip – Puerto Rico and San Francisco It’s my list and I don’t have to pick if I don’t want to. Celebrating Lori and Will’s nuptials was exciting enough, but the beach? In January? Yes, please. Gorgeous, delicious, amazing.
Tony put it best when he said, “I left my heart in San Francisco.” I have developed a large, passionate crush on the city by the bay.

Best Holiday – 4th of July in Charleston
America’s birthday party brought me to Charleston this year where I partook in festivities on Morris Island all day long. Amazing weather, good friend.

Best Dakota Moment – Let’s just all be honest. When is there not a precious, muffin moment with Dakota? Muffinface 24/7 therefore I cannot pick a best. Best Moment of 2009– Meeting Daniel
No explanation needed. All is love.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Stash Bash 09

As I was wandering the grocery store aisles last Friday night in search of Velveeta for the must have party snack of rotel queso dip, I had a man stop me and ask, “so what’s the deal with the mustaches?” I forgot to mention I was rocking a fancy stash for our housewarming party that very night. The man continued to say he had recently observed an overwhelming surge in the mustache’s popularity. He begged the question, “who started all this?!” Two words, one man. Tom Selleck. Whether you became a fan of that fluffy, well maintained stash while Mr. Selleck was taking care of a baby with two other men, solving crimes against humanity as a Hawaiian detective or simply making Monica swoon while dilating her eyes, I think we can all agree that he defines the mustache, or more commonly known as moostache, as pure raw sexuality. Rawr!

Nina, Daniel and I welcomed everyone and their mother over for a good old fashion house party. Let the wild rumpus start! There was booze, flip cup, dance circles, gang initiations, snuggies, make out sessions, roof top activity and many a stash at the bash. The night is rather fuzzy, but the photos speak volumes. A montage for your enjoyment.





Oh, and yes, many were reserved at first to dawn a stash, but once the drinks were flowing that was no longer an issue. I leave you with a few words of wisdom which I whole heartily hope will make your next party and maybe even life in general a tad sweeter…embrace the stash.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Current Crushes

My friend Lauren’s blog is the one that inspired me to actually create my own. I just knew my life was so thrilling and exciting that I could no longer deprive cyberspace from my day to day activities. Anyways, Lauren did a post once about her current crushes and since my life this week is anything but exhilarating, I took inspiration (aka copied) from her once again and decided to share what I am crushin' on this week.

All things Munich – Stockholm – Berlin – Czech Republic related.
American New Year’s Eves are sooooo 2009. In an effort to kick the new decade off in style, Daniel and I will be venturing to Europe for a week to explore and indulge. Our week will hopefully involve, but not be limited to, lederhosen, huge beers, ice castles, snow, museums, holiday markets, gluvine, sausage, tiny foreign rental cars, cute villages, bed and breakfasts, the Autobahn and some guy named Checkpoint Charlie. Frolicking will most likely ensue. Green Tea.
Since my office likes to keep things about as warm as Antarctica this time of year, I am likely to OD on hot chocolate sometime very soon. Not to mention office hot coco isn’t nearly as fun as home hot coco which may or may not involve Baileys, Khalua or anything in that category. Thus, I sip on this lovely warm liquid each day to keep from turning into a very pretty ice cube.

Apple Bread.
I have yet to figure out how to use our bread maker, but will sometime in the near future. Until that oh so amazing time, I will continue to make this delish apple bread in a box from Trader Joes. Don’t hate. It.is.wonderful. A tad dry in general, but if you had ¼ cup apple sauce it does the trick.

Wine.
Another Trader Joe obsession of mine is Panilonco’s Carmenere from Chile. You will not believe me until you let this perfectly flavored red liquid gold hit your lips, but once you do you will be sold. For life. The $5 price tag is misleading considering I would pay much more for this tasty treat. Add it to your grocery list immediately if not sooner. You can thank me later by dropping a bottle off at the manor on Monroe. You’re welcome.

Snuggie.
My current uniform upon arrival at the manor each day after work now includes my amazeballs snuggie Sunnie and Amy gave me for my birthday last year. Go ahead kids, jump on the bandwagon. They really are all their cracked up to be. Give in already. All the cool kids are doing it. I am very jeal of Nina's leopard print snuggie. She is so trendy!

Uggs/Carolina slippers.
Another feature of my after work attire is snuggley footwear sine the hardwood floors in our poorly insulted house built in 1912 just about could be an ice rink this time of year. Lately, I have been rocking the Carolina slippers in support of my team who so nicely dominated over Clemsux this year. It’s the least I can do to show my support. GO COCKS!


Naughty Christmas Music.
Have you ever really listened to some of the Christmas classics? Take a moment and find yourself in hysterics once you see what pervs our predecessors were. Example number uno,

Winter Wonderland: In the meadow we can build a snowman. Then pretend that he is Parson Brown. He'll say: Are you married? We'll say: No man. But you can do the job when you're in town. Um wtf? Who is this Parson character and what is "the job?"

Thursday, December 3, 2009

New York, I love you.

After spending yet another week in the city that never sleeps, the big apple, empire city, Gotham, the melting pot, the city or whatever you care to call it – I confess, I am deeply, madly and passionately still in love with New York City. We’ve been a part of a dramatic love affair going on several years and I must admit; distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder. It had been almost six full months since we had been united. Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect time to mesh the fabulous relationship with my city and my amazing love, Daniel, all together for a week of food, fun and frolicking. It.was.blissful.

Simply flying over our city at night as we arrived made my heart flutter with excitement as I saw all those bright lights shining for what seemed for a moment, just for us. Upon touchdown, we quickly jumped into one of those famous yellow cabs and head straight for the East Village where we would call home for the week to see my bff from college, Patrick. It was Patrick’s only night in town so after hellos and suitcase abandonment, we were off for a night of bar hoping which included a badass spot called Death Club. Apparently this trendy hot spot is difficult to get into (Patrick had been rejected twice before), but with Daniel and I in tow we were granted entry to this dark and sexy drinkery. Hand chopped ice cubes and freshly homemade juices added to the outrageous bill, but it was totally worth it. After we didn’t die at Death Club we hopped on to two other spots: one, Mary Kate Olsen frequents (alas my homie was not there that night, sigh) and the other featured a cat on the bar. A real, live, whiskey drinking feline. Oh, I love New York.

The next morning brought a nasty case of food poisoning for Daniel so after fixing him up with meds, water, the works I ventured out to spend the day with my city. (I made sure he was all set to go vomming away with the necessary items before I left. I maintain I am a fantastic gf). I headed up to Midtown to take Patrick to lunch at the Black Shack before he flew home for the holiday. We noshed on burgers and milkshakes while we caught up and gossiped about life, love and the pursuit of booty. I then frolicked around the streets solo for a while soaking up the energy of the city before heading back to check on sicky mcsickerson. Daniel was a trooper and peeled his body out of bed and his head out of the toilet to join me for a sunset jaunt over the Brooklyn Bridge. Out of the umpteen times I have been to NYC, I had never walked across the bridge. It is a must do. Great views, beautiful construction and you get to see tons of funny tourists taking a million photos (aka me). Just beware of the jacks bikers who will scream your head off it you even dare breathe over the line that separates the bike path and the picture path. Seriously dude? You are in a full on spandex suit with a helmet that resembles a comet. Yell at whoever let you out of the house looking a damn fool instead of lil ole me. Thanks. We spent the next few hours getting lost in Little Italy and Chinatown (where we casually walked next to Naomi Watts for two blocks, shoulder to shoulder while being photographed by the paps. Look for us in US Weekly!) before grabbing sushi and heading to the Bowery Ballroom to see the Julian Plenty show. What an awesome venue. No wonder it is uber famous. Three levels include a swanky lounge for drinks, the main concert room and a balcony section with a fab bar. The rest of the evening was spent bar hopping in the LES – cash only.

Wednesday was sleep in, lunch with family and the off to the newly opened Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA. It was really awesome and since Daniel was a film major he ate it up. Very cool to see original sketches, movie costumes and this little guy you might have heard of – John Mayer. Anyone? No? Oh, yea ok, I thought so. We initially were about three people behind him in line until the lady called all actual ticket holders to the front of the line. Being Ms. Planner I, of course, had tickets already in hand. Daniel and I by passed Mr. Mayer and his friend because we were VIP and apparently they were not. It felt pretty cool to be honest. The exhibit itself wasn’t huge so John caught up to us and we walked through together mostly. Granted, we didn’t actually exchange words, but I believe we exchanged air and that is enough for me ladies and gentlemen!

Thanksgiving could not have been more gorgeous. We woke up early to join 9 million other out of towners at the Macy’s Day Parade. They changed the route this year so we spent an hour running block to block trying to find the damn thing, but only catching the butt of Snoopy or the side of Pillsbury Doughboy. We eventually caught up and secured a great spot next to our closest 2,000 friends to see the rest of the parade ending perfectly with Santa. We then did some actual frolicking in Central Park followed by a viewing of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, a delish dinner complete with pumpkin ravioli and night of music and booze.






Friday, we made it over to an amazing bookstore that had an awesome rare books collection. We could have spent hours in there not to mention about a million dollars, but alas, we had to jet off to Philly to spend time with Daniel’s brother. I love Philly too. We had a great night of bar hoping and bonding. Saturday, Daniel and I walked around Philly for several hours taking in all the history and my very first ever in my life Philly cheesesteak. I figure it was the best place to do it. Amazing. Can’t wait for more in my future!


Sigh. We are now back home safely exhausted in ATL. After being to NYC so many times you would think I had done it all, but no. There are still a ton of things on my NYC bucket list that another trip is required ASAP. I know we will be moving there after Daniel is done with school, but I cannot wait that long to be reunited with my love. I predict a trip very soon to satisfy my needs. I will say, of all my trips, this had to be the best. My favorite city with my favorite person; life is sweet.