Hiking near NYC: Sterling Forest State Park

This trail was amazing, about five miles of pure serenity, with river crossings and a few steep climbs. I recommend this for any first time hikers that want a long, quiet, beautiful great high/low hiking trail.

Spanish guy and I were all smiles and the length was just right for us. The weather was amazing today as well, 65 degrees. After hiking along a flat road and up a light hill, we had to take off our shoes to cross the river, and the sensation on the bottom of our feet felt like a cold stone massage.  At the beginning of the trail we passed by (what we later found out were) relics of former mining activity. Old beautiful abandoned buildings from the 1700's They were beautiful and erie. The hike ended with a few short steep rocky paths and brought us straight out to our car. It was perfect for our Sunday afternoon. We had a nice lunch afterward.  

Oh yeah, it's only 45 minutes from NYC as well!

Hubby crossing the river

blocking the bugs from getting in my hair

gorgeous.

Our Third Wedding Anniversary in NYC: Lady Gaga's Restaurant, Off-Broadways Shows & MORE!

Last week Spanish Guy and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. It was our first celebration not traveling so we wanted to make the most of our local celebrations. We didn't have ANY time to plan (the life of NYC working professionals) SO the big day arrived and we were left walking around the charming streets of manhattan-- in the brisk cold with soft steam seeping out of the crease of our lips, we dogged a yellow taxi and helped each other safety cross over black ice, with no reservations, looking for a romantic cozy restaurant.

Luckily, one of the first ones that we saw turned out to be more special than we could have ever imagined. It was a small Italian Restaurant on the Upper West Side called Joannes.

It turned out that it was LADY GAGA's RESTAURANT...

Complementary Dessert from Joannes-- for our anniversary, so sweet!

L-O-V-E

Four years ago when Spanish guy and I moved to NYC a friend of mine gave us free tickets to see Lady Gaga at Madison Sq Garden. It was a magical experience, and one that we never forgot (we were so poor and so disconnected from USA pop culture for years before this). So to be celebrating for the first time in NYC a few feet away from Lady Gagas' Family was SO special to us. We feel like the universe works with us. Things have always fell into place for us and we are so grateful for that.

Besides the amazing Italian Dinner and hours of conversation reflecting on our last year together, that weekend we exchanged gifts, went to see Stomp (bought for us by a dear friend) and went to the Spanish Tapas Chain, Cien Mondaditos! 

What a memorable Wedding Anniversary in NYC

The off-Broadway show, STOMP, a wedding anniversary gift

Cien Montaditos, NYC

Montaditos and Chips from Cien Montaditos, NYC

And of course, we exchanged gifts. I bought my hubby a personalized (leather) gift from Red Envelope and he bought me a super European outfit (with Leather-- the theme of the third anniversary-- shirt and bottom) from Club Monaco (one of my favorite shops).

ON TO OUR FOURTH YEAR! Next blog theme: how we maintain happiness in our marriage as the years go on.

Valentines Day, 2014

Today is Valentines Day, 2014. Last year we spent Vee-Day at JFK in route to Spain. It was super romantic, charming and amazing! This year we decided to relax a bit and enjoy our own environment-- a laid back evening of romance right in our own backyard. We go out almost every night, so going out on Valentines Day won't make for a special night, instead we were thinking of heading out to NYC's Sex Museum then spending the evening at our magical apartment with some wine and pizza. 

It's the small things that count in life sometimes.

Bathroom Redecoration Inspiration!

Spanish Guy and I spent the afternoon hitting up all the major modern furniture stores in Manhattan-- West Elm, CB2, Pottery Barn. We needed to get some ideas/inspiration before getting our hands dirty in some DYI reno's, starting with the bathroom! We are thinking of ripping out the old vanity and replacing it with Pottery Barns Kensington Pivot Mirror:

Pottery Barns Mirror we want to purchase

Our current mirrored vanity:

It photographs well, but it person it's pretty crappy, or should I say doesn't fit with my style. We also want to paint and get one of those cool ladder towel racks! Once we are done with the bathroom it's on to the balcony decoration! FUN! My moon in Libra is dancing around! I want a bold yet oasis feel for the bathroom, modern and chic. Lets GO!

FURNITURE SHOPPING, NYC married couple:

Today we took hope some fresh towels from Pottery Barn as well as Natural Pomegranate Popperie! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

One week in our new place. What bliss.

Today is our one week anniversary in our new place, and in celebration of this special occasion, we bought some cheap Yellow Tail Sangria Wine for me and Pinnacle Coconut Vodka with pineapple juice from concentrate for Spanish Guy and we are dancing the night away in the privacy of our new place.

It's below freezing outside and our car is stuck in an icy spot, who has time to chip away at the ice? NOT US! We have better things to do, like take long warm showers and vacuum under our new appliances! Isn't that what married couples do? I'll be damned if I am ever the wife type that does everything! We are a couple that does things TOGETHER! EQUALITY! Anyway, we are happy with this lifestyle and this natural way of doing things. It was never discussed, we just do it together because we both love and respect each other. Anyway, I just got off track... sorry.

So we did what any REAL New Yorkers would do, complained a bit, and then made the best of our situation! WAH! Still so in love after almost three years of marriage (next week is our anniversary,), and almost five years since we first met in Spain at that little school house, we are still on the same page in terms of happiness and what we want out of life.

Living in NYC in January and February will take a toll on anyone, especially a couple, but everyday is a holiday for us. We are on CONSTANT VACATION mode. Every out-of-work activity is done with the thought of being healthy and happy as if it were our last day, therefore we live worry free!

We are so much happier here. Our quality of life has improved significantly from when we lived in Brooklyn. Instead of waking up to the noise of a four-year-old neighbor at 5:30am, I wake up to the soft illumination of the sun, turn over with a blissful feeling and see the love of my life.

How amazing. Priceless...

NYC Penthouse Living

We made it to our new home, A Penthouse in NYC! With the help of amazing friends and family, we finished the move in only a few hours. Our new place is AMAZING! I feel so comfortable and inspired here. The views are spectacular, I can't stop looking out my window. The appreciation I feel is so deep. I went for a few runs in Central Park already, my happy place, and I cooked long meals and Spanish guy is SUPER excited because we have a dishwasher now, so he doesn't have to do the dishes by hand anymore! Ha!

We worked hard for this, I really came from nothing and built something. We will stay here for a while. This will be our new home...

The view from our bedroom, Central Park. PURE ROMANCE!

Balcony entrance.

Spanish Guy enjoying the multiple views of Manhattan.

Noisy upstairs neighbors: My story

The early morning sun was lightly seeping through my off-white persian blinds. The light was soft,  providing hints of a new day. I slowly stretched and softly turned over, making sure my hair stayed loosely behind my ears with a sleepy toss. I cradled my pillow under my head and found the perfect nook along my husbands form. As my muscles relaxed, and my upper eyelids kissed their southern neighbor, I was harshly reminded that I am on someone else's schedule. That of the neighbors upstairs, with their four-(ish) year old child, bursting with energy, popping out of bed at that magical moment every morning to march around and bounce his [bowling] ball to no avail. Welcome to my world, the world of living below people with children. I want to provide the same disruption of life to them as they do me every morning, especially on those lazy Sundays, but I don't. 

It's time for us to go...

---

So is my life: I'm moving yet again. My hubby and I terminated our lease only after four months (with penalties of course, ugh) and this week we are back in Manhattan (yay). Not only will we be back in Manhattan, but this is not bad, because after being forced to leave our current apartment due to extreme noise violations form noisy neighbors, we were able to find the apartment we've always dreamed of, in the sky, with a balcony, overlooking Central Park, and right on Museum Mile! I'm living on cloud nine right now just thinking of it!

They say that you can manifest what you want by keeping it in your mind. I think I did that, with a splash of good karma. Good Bye Brooklyn, I really do love you, you raised me, but I'm a Manhattan girl at heart! 

--

And good riddens little jute-box upstairs! It's been real.

Living in Sunset Park, Brooklyn

Recently I've had to defend my decision to move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, specifically The Upper West Side to Sunset Park. It was hard when I myself didn't even want to move to Brooklyn, I spoke about it as something I wasn't too excited about. I spoke about how amazing the Upper West Side was and how isolated I felt in Sunset Park without the energy of the city. One day I spoke about it with an average upper middle class couple who I met at a lunch event. After I explained that there was not much going on in Sunset Park, they nodded their head and said to me, "yeah, Sunset Park, we heard, has a lot of crime and is full of immigrants".

From that point on I said to myself (and this blog), I WILL NOT talk bad about the community I am now a part of and am representing. I will not misrepresent all the wonderful people that grew up here and love this community, and I will APPRECIATE every unique experience that I come across while living here!

After this jolt of social awareness, I started to appreciate so much more the gorgeous and unique views of Manhattan from Sunset Park. I started to look forward to my taco date nights with my Husband in places like Matamoros on 5th ave (instead of driving to nearby Park Slope), I started to welcome the quiet, and smile at the young Chinese and Mexican mothers and babies and finally, I created a reading list to enjoy my commute to work everyday. I'm three books into my list of titles and authors I wanted to read.

Oh yeah, and today Spanish Guy and I got our new dining room table delivered. It's gorgeous. And we decided to stay home tonight, a Saturday, on a holiday weekend, to enjoy each other and our new home. He's amazing and so is Sunset Park, Brooklyn!

Manhattan to Brooklyn

bye Upper West Side

Today makes one week that we've been in our new apartment. Back to Brooklyn as we've been saying. Spanish Guy is super happy about the move. Being raised in the mountains, he wanted a little more peace and quiet, so we moved to a residential area of Brooklyn. But my restless soul craves the big city life. I loved just walking out of my building and being in the center of it all, and you can't get better than having Central Park a few steps away, but we gave all that up. I guess thats what you do when you're married. We gave all that up for a fully-renovated, quiet, beautiful, extremely large apartment in a charming Brooklyn Neighborhood. I guess it's not that bad, and I have to remember it was an intentional choice, we weren't forced into it, so hopefully I just need some time to adjust...

we'll see.

It's been crazy ordering new furniture, getting cable and internet installed, I don't know how anyone with a strict full-time job would be able to manage this, because it's been a lot of missed days of work for me in order to wait for deliveries and etc. Luckily my job is extremely flexible and doesn't mind if I work from home, so here I am right now waiting for our new couch to arrive from Crate and Barrel! :D

our new living area

our first dinner on our old dinning bistro table

It's been nice so far, having nothing to do, but cook, shower and chit-chat, without any other distractions and without lots of external stimulation. When we were in Manhattan I used to get home from work, run in central park, shower, go out for drinks or dinner, walk around, have a gelato, and head home at around midnight, almost every day. Now in Brooklyn, I get home from work a little later (because I'm farther away from work), have a conversation with my husband, cook together, wash dishes, shower and lay down for bed at around 10pm. Our lives have slowed down dramatically. I guess thats what happens when you move from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

You have less time and less access...

But it's only been a week so far, so lets see if this continues.

More soon.

Moving stress

Wow, its been over a month since I've blogged. So you can imagine the stress that I've been under (well, I went away for almost three weeks, but after that it was just all-consuming anxiety for something that I still cannot understand).

I was in Europe for almost all of August and when I returned my husband and I (Spanish Guy) decided that it was time to move, so he and I spent almost everyday looking at apartments, in various neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn. When we finally narrowed it down to Manhattan and Brooklyn, we were torn about how much we wanted to spend. We are blessed to make more than we actually need, so we had to discuss how much we WANTED to spend on housing, that was tricky, because obviously the more we spent the better the apartment was, so it was tempting to spend a lot on rent, but in the end, after endless nights without sleep because of worry of making the wrong decision, we found a cute place, all new in Brooklyn.

And that is why I haven't blogged in over a month. Between all the internet searches, meeting with brokers, apartment visits, etc, I've had no time. I'm simplifying this a bit, it was super stressful and triggered something painful from deep within me. I still don't know what it is...

LIFE IS GOOD

This week, I went to my premiere documentary film screening at an internationally recognized venue, I went to a street fair, I rain almost 20 miles, I had a dress rehearsal for a Flamenco show I'm performing in, I had breakfast and dinners with my husband, I had cocktails with my friends, and I BOUGHT A CAR!

Its been a "gangster" week, LIFE IS GOOD! I need action and excitement to be happy, I guess I just have that type of personality, lucky for me, my life is full of it!

The parties have begun!

Its the season of parties. 

Everyone is out from hibernation! 

I'm loving it!

Rats and NYC Living

When I lived on the Lower East Side, LES, of NYC, I used to see rats all the time. The LES is infested. Then when I read the book, Rats by Robert Sullivan many years ago, I understood why. They came to the USA on the ships with the Irish and English from England and Ireland to the ports of NYC and Boston. The rats made their home in NYC and multiplied quickly. Now, they say for every one New Yorker there are as many as 15 rats.

I tell this story to try to make sense of WHY THE HECK THERE WAS A RAT IN MY 17TH FLOOR APARTMENT ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN!

Last night was one huge, SCARY and HILARIOUS ordeal!

We had a rat the same size as a big banana in our apartment. Its tail was thick and ratched and its body as black as the ace of spades!

As we all grabbed a "weapon" to get it out, it started JUMPING and squealing! Who knew that rats could jump!?

It jumped as high as my waist and the only natural reaction that four adults had was to scream at the top of our lungs and run for our lives! And so we did for the next four hours until 2am when we finally got it by throwing a hand weight at it (sorry animal rights activists), crippling it. It ran into the hallway and into the locked janitors closet! (I have to mention, that we got it out into the hallway a few times and it kept on running back inside!)

But that was the end. We had won. TRIUMPH!

Boy-oh-boy was it a crazy night and one that will go down in my life's history book!

Christmas Morning and Christmas Day, a NYC Family

I felt like a child this christmas morning! On Christmas Eve I went to bed at 3am, and on Christmas morning I woke up at 9am, I couldn't sleep... it was CHRISTMAS! So Spanish Guy and I jumped out of bed, made breakfast and then ripped open our presents. I LOVED his gift, it was so thoughtful and right on point! He got me waterproof Geox-Tex knee-height leather boots! I've wanted tall boots for years and never got them. He knew!

Christmas Morning, 2012

Christmas Morning, 2012

After breakfast we went out for a walk and grabbed a coffee-- its a christmas tradition that we have (along with a game of ping pong-- long story). It was a nice morning.

All afternoon I was prepping dinner and the house for my family's visit. I planned well because I had enough time to sneak out for a run in Central Park. That was nice because everyone who was in the park was so happy and calm, it was a cheerful beautiful environment.

Christmas with my family was crazy and fun as always. This year I was happy that ALL my brothers were together! love LOVE LOVE it!

Premature NYC Snow

As snowflakes fall prematurely in NYC, I'm stimulated by the beauty all around me.

I made hot chocolate from scratch after my evening spent in the company of winter.

 Love and serenity are hidden in the small moments that surround us. 

Convenience-- living in the City

Ever since moving to Manhattan, I've realized how inconvenient my life was before-- it took me about 45min to get to and from my local supermarket. Now, I have a D'agostino, Whole Foods, Food City and Associated Super Markets with a few blocks of where I live. To get to any sort of nature, it was about a 50min walk. Now, its a two minute walk to Central Park and a ten minute walk to River Side Park. Before, I had three trains to choose from to make it into the City for work, and they were all packed like Sardines-- I was STRESSED!  Now, I have FIVE trains lines that run through my area and I ALWAYS get a seat! This is like LUXURY for a NYer!

The inspiration for this blog came when I just googled where my polling site was and I found out that its in the school right up my block! How convenient! How could I NOT vote!? When in Brooklyn, I had to walk and walk to make it to my polling site!

Election day Blog to come this evening.

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:

on moving

I’ve been searching for an apartment for just about a month now. I currently live in a (pretty nice) basement, but Spanish guy and I desperately craved windows with lots of sunshine to illuminate our abode, not to mention our lives. So when we started the search, we decided to look in the neighborhood that we were currently living. Way to high – the price I mean. This made me nervous, MY WHOLE LIFE WAS IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD! My friends, my gym, the express train into Manhattan, EVERYTHING!

I thought that if I moved out I would turn into this blubbering, extra large, friendless, pathetic person! That would be the end of me! My social life revolved around my gym and my community!

But then, I opened up my mind a bit. Maybe its okay to explore other areas, maybe I can make new friends, and maybe I can find serene little streets and nature to run in. And that’s what we did. We decided to move to Bayridge, Brooklyn.

Its a neighborhood with lots of walking and running trails along the East River, a park with views of lower Manhattan, tons of restaurants, bars, clubs, lounges, and an eclectic mix of people.

We found a lovely place in a prewar building with hardwood floors, original details, and get this: A VIEW OF THE RIVER! Views in NYC are very hard to come by, so as soon as we saw it we put a deposit down to secure it!

We are trying to stay smart and not give into the American culture of HUGE houses, TWO cars, and living WAY above your means. We also don't want too much responsibility (I know I mentioned this before), but the more responsibility you have, the more stress you have and the worse your life becomes. We are avoiding this at all costs! We actually rented this place for a lot less than we can afford. Now we have disposable income for travel and sports, and we STILL have a super cute place to go home to every night.

So maybe I won’t turn into a blubbering mess, maybe we will be okay in Bayridge.

Actually, I’m sure we will.

The Giants, go NY go NY GO!

It was a weekend of the Giants! Spanish guy and I ran the Gridiron Classic with the New York Road Runners in Central Park on Sunday morning at 9am, as a nice healthy way to celebtae the Giants making it to the Superbowl. Later in the evening (after a little cat nap) we headed to our local sports bar to cheer on NYC!

When they won, I was so happy! Jumping up and down, slapping strangers five, whistling, yelling in the streets. LOCURA!

Unfortunately I had to work yesterday so I couldn't get to the parade -- but Spanish guy and my brother went and said it was GREAT! They saw the Giants passing by on the trucks, and they said the energy was through the roof!

So COOL! Proud day for NYC! FUN FUN FUN! 

Next up: Baseball, and more races for Spanish Guy & I 

Racing season has begun!