Danger in NYC-- Hurricane Sandy

I dont know why I take so many chances with my life, but its just an urge that I have. Today I went running through Manhattan, 70 blocks, with high winds and rain (Hurricane Sandy is here). I have to admit, it was so refreshing and I felt so great! I ran to Columbus Circle and I took a picture of how empty it was.

Thirty minutes later I hear that a crane collapsed and is at risk of falling from the building and no one knows where it will land. Its crazy, because its in the locating that I was running. I took this picture right before it fell (its the tall building in the background).

Crazy-- you never know what can happen in man-made places when mother nature reaps its wrath!

Hurricane Sandy-- NYC, Riverside Park Flooding

Hurricane Sandy-- We took a walk by the Hudson River this morning, even though the park seemed to be closed, we found that the River was swollen and the area was flooded! It was SO COOL to experience!

Spanish guy got caught in a huge wave! 

We were not prepared for this:

Private Halloween Party, 2012

The plan this weekend was to go out dancing, but Spanish guy and I decided to take it back and celebrate like we used to do in Spain, a PRIVATE party, just me and him. So we both dressed up and made guacamole, and danced for hours until the early morning. You know you belong with someone when you can just spend hours and hours with that person and thats all you need. xo.

internal and external travel

Life is about growth, personal experience and interactions. The way thats projected/played out in my life is through travel-- mostly. I don't ever want to get to a place in my life where I become stagnant, where I stop growing. I feel that I went through that as a teenager. Everyday was similar to the last and it was hard for me to see tomorrow. So I've decided to put the house buying on hold for another year so that Spanish guy and I don't have to sacrifice our travels (or his sports adventures) for a downpayment.

So our Spanish, North African trip is booked for February. As is our December beach getaway to the Dominican Republic, and in January I'm so excited because my friend is turning 30 and she's celebrating in Las Vegas! I've never been, but I hear its a wild place and I cant wait to go!

All of these trips create a sense of purpose for me, my internal level of excitement is elevated just thinking about them. My sense of anticipation is so strong!

In the meantime, in reference to my house situation, I'm in one of the best neighborhoods in NYC, so I'm going to focus on fixing up our apartment and making it my own-- a cozy "escape", so that I feel comfortable traveling internally, with my own thoughts as well as into the world!

Me, 2008, cross the Mediterranean Sea in route to Melilla, North Africa

Family Visiting

My family left yesterday, and now I feel like my apartment is so quiet. The time they spent here went by so fast, it felt like a few days even though it was nine days! The more people one has around the less time they have to think about things and reflect. This could be a blessing and a curse at the same time, depending on your life! haha.

Everyday after work I met my cousins at a new neighborhood in NYC. We ate tons of food (typically desserts), and walked for miles throughout the West Village, over the Brooklyn Bridge, through Central Park, Times Square, Riverside Park, and the Lower East Side. It was NON STOP!

I finally have some time to sit back and work on things that are important to me, like blogging and I just applied for a new job. I'm not 100% sure that I want to leave my job now, but I'd like to see what else is out there. I don't feel like I'm progressing, and learning to me is so important. Anyway, I miss my cousin a lot and wish they lived in NYC, she's the closet thing I have to a sister. Thats not an option right now, so until then I'll live my own life in NYC and visit them in Florida whenever I can.

A look back:

walking over the Brooklyn Bridge

in a NYC Subway Station

Spiritual Energy Balance and Life Experiences

I have family visiting.

my family. 

They visit a lot, so to switch it up a bit, we took a little road trip to Pennsylvania to go hiking and participate in Halloween activities in the country! By night, we went to a haunted house in the mountains and then on a haunted hayride which kicked us off and made us terrified by walking through the corn fields to escape! By day, we went to a pumpkin festival, and drank hot cider with cinnamon in the oversized general store, we went to a petting farm and rode a ferris wheel. It was very charming, and a nice change of scenery. I felt happy and didn't want to return to the city...

hiking in the Pocono Mountains

la feria de pumpkins!

the pumpkin festival in Pennsylvania!

the autumn leaves

my love and I relaxing after the hike

But when we did, my cousin and I decided that we would get our palms read. I've done this before and they are always spot on.

after our readings

This time, among many other things, they told me that my spiritual energy balance is off and that although I am successful in most areas of my life, I'm not satisfied. I was thinking, how the heck does she know that! I didn't tell them anything about me!

So now I'm on a mission to get my spiritual energy balance back so that I can be satisfied with what I have. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate EVERYTHING I have and all the experiences I get, but theres always a craving for more, and I've expressed that in this blog over the past four years. Maybe its a good thing, because I'm always striving for more and it pushes me to do extreme/unique things!

Any thoughts?

**So many different themes appear here, sorry for the lack of structure, thats what I get for not writing more.

tomorrows race

I'm running a half marathon tomorrow. I didn't train well for this one, the longest run I've ran in the last few months has been five miles so I'm going to almost triple my distance tomorrow, PLUS-- I took a bootcamp class last night and I'm SO sore today! AND ON TOP OF THAT-- its supposed to rain all day tomorrow!

BUT, I WILL FINISH! I HAVE TO!

I owe it to the clouds

Its a foggy day in NYC. When I woke up this morning and peeked out of my bedroom window, a little part of me was joyful... I realized that I had slept among the clouds.

The layers of fog were dense, I saw the clouds seeping through the small holes of my window screen, like they belonged there. It was like a dream. 

Looking out of my 17th floor window, I realized that it was the first night in a long time that I had slept without bathroom urges, disruptive sounds, problems with the room temperature, it was peaceful...

I owe it to the clouds, the fog...

How magical.