Rapunzel

I have been growing my hair out for the last year, and it is now at the longest it's been since my freshman year of college. I know for most of you, my hair is quite an average length. But for me, it's just like Rapunzel's.

However, I now have a problem. With summer fast approaching, I am DYING to chop it all off. The long hair is totally annoying, takes forever to dry, and gets in my way. All day long at work, I put it in a ponytail, then braid it, then put it in two braids, then a bun, then back down again. If I'm not careful, I might take the scissors in the mug on my desk and just chop it like a crazy person (a la Drew Barrymore in "Grey Gardens.")

Here is my hair journey.

May 2008:

August 2008:


October 2008:


December 2008:

May 2009:

What do you think?! Should I persevere in growing it out to Blake Lively-esque lengths, or should I just whack it off?

(Also, while we're on the subject, I could always go brunette again...)

December 2007:

(NEVER!)

I got a feeling there's a miracle due

This Memorial Day weekend, I decided that I needed a stay-cation. I've had a lot going on lately and felt like I had a nice beach trip when I went to Mexico, so a 4-day weekend in the city sounded quite nice.

The weatherman kept threatening rain, but fortunately it was gorgeous the entire time. I slept in most days, went to the Boat Basin twice, saw Star Trek (actually LOVED it!), volunteered at church, got a manicure/pedicure, had a delicious brunch at Good Enough to Eat, planned a picnic in Central Park with friends - frisbee and all, went to see Shrek on Broadway, shopped, read a book, saw improv comedy at UCB Theatre, and had my first Mister Softee of the season. And last night, although not technically part of the Memorial Day weekend, I paid my first visit to the new Citi Field for a Mets game.

All weekend long, I couldn't help but think of how much I love Memorial Day weekend...not so much for what happens during the weekend, but for the feeling of what's to come. The hardest part of the year - the dregs of winter from January to April - is behind you. And the best parts of the year - the fun of summertime, cool, crisp fall and football season, and the holidays - lie in the months ahead.

The anticipation is exciting! I don't know what the time holds, and I have no idea what my life will look like or how it will change... but I'm okay with that. I know that something good is coming, and I can't wait to see what it is. Or, as Tony sings in West Side Story -

Could be! Who knows?
There's something due any day
I will know right away, soon as it shows.
It may come cannonballing down through the sky,
Gleam in its eye, bright as a rose!

Who knows?
It's only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach, under a tree.
I got a feeling there's a miracle due,
Gonna come true, coming to me!

Could it be? Yes, it could.
Something's coming, something good, if I can wait!
Something's coming,
I don't know what it is, but it is gonna be great!

Bliss

bliss \ˈblis\
noun
1: complete happiness 2: paradise, heaven

Challenge: Write a five-item list of the things that bring you bliss.

1. When an email reply crosses with a friend's and we are both saying the exact same weird, random or ridiculous thing at the exact same time but don’t realize until we’ve already hit send.
2. Everything about "You've Got Mail" - Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the Upper West Side, Christmastime, bouquets of sharpened pencils, "Fight! Fight to the death!"
3. Strawberry shortcake at Pastis in the summer.
4. When I'm walking outside in the city, and the weather's just right, and I know that I need the perfect song to be the soundtrack to the moment, so I scroll through my iPod... and I find it.
5. The sound of the trumpeter playing the Battle Hymn before a Georgia football game.

What's your Bliss List?

On summer

"Aside from just the seasonal shift, summer brings with it a distinct sense of freedom.  We feel that much looser, more open.  We have our lunch breaks in the park and sneak out of work early on Fridays if we can swing it.  And we figure out some kind of weekend exit strategy, no matter how improvised.  When I was living on the ridiculously low salary of a magazine assistant, escape sometimes meant taking the F train to Coney Island on Saturday to ride the Cyclone and have hot dogs at Nathan's.  But the best part was sitting on the boardwalk, drinking beer, and looking out over the horizon.  The fact that you could get on the New York City subway and wind up on a beach - any beach - was a revelation.

I have gotten myself in much closer proximity to more pristine summer destinations since those days, but there was something about that time - something that came from desperately needing an end-of-week taste of liberty - that was its own version of perfection.  Except for the long ride home on the F train."

- Kim France, Editor in Chief of Lucky, June 2009

Happy Friday!

What I'm loving today: Etsy designer DazeyChic's adorable prints. The "C'est la Vie" illustration is my current desktop backround at work, and I'm thinking of ordering a print or two or three to frame for my apartment!

Have a happier than a bird with a french fry Friday!

Qavah

"Even youths grow weary, and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint."

- Isaiah 40:31, NIV

This verse may or may not be familiar to you. If you grew up in a Christian school with a basketball team, it probably is, as it most likely made its way to the back of a t-shirt at one point or another.

Also, if it is familiar to you, you probably know that the word HOPE is replaced with the word WAIT in the NAS translation, i.e., "those who wait for the Lord." How interesting. "Hope" and "wait" are interchangeable...

This hope/wait word is the Hebrew word QAVAH, and I must say - it is my new favorite Hebrew word. It should be noted, however, that I don't know many others besides Shalom and Mazel Tov.

• qavah: to hope, to wait for, to look eagerly, to expect with intensity

Andy Stanley describes it this way -

Qavah is the word used to describe a thief or a robber who is hiding on the side of the road waiting for someone to pass by. It is waiting, but it is eager, leaning forward, anticipatory waiting: "Something's about to happen, and I'm going to be ready. Somebody's about to come, and I am waiting eagerly."

Other commentators compare qavah to children on Christmas morning who are waiting on Mom and Dad to wake up so they can open presents. The children run around, peer out the window, look up the stairs, jump at the slightest noise, knock on the bedroom door, all in eager anticipation of the events to come.

I LOVE these two word pictures... a robber on the side of a road and a child on Christmas morning. This is not passive waiting. This is not leaning back, doing nothing, being ho hum about what may or may not come next. No! This is active! Eager! Anticipatory! Crouched forward, ready to pounce! Full of life!

This is the posture of hope, the posture of qavah. We can't help but notice that hope is intrinsically tied with waiting, and waiting with hope. The hope of the Lord comes from the fact that there is more to this life than we can see, and we are called to patiently wait for the unfathomable things that God has planned for us in the future. We wait patiently for what's ahead because we have hope, and we hope for what's ahead as we wait.

As Isaiah writes, even youths [read: everyone] get weary and fall. You and I both know that this is life - it's hard, it's tiring, it's confusing, it's sad, it's exhausting. But! As we lean forward in hope and wait on the Lord, qavah-ing, our strength will be renewed.

So be encouraged in your weariness, and have hope. Hope that a rescuer is on the way. Hope that something new is just around the bend. Hope that the end is in sight. Hope that good things are coming. Lean into that hope. Get ready. Wait actively.

Because Mom and Dad will be up soon, and there's a bike with a bow on it in the garage.

If I was a Rich Girl

Whether you admit it or not, everyone is fascinated by the things they can't afford. For some, it's looking at massive houses that are for sale. For others, it's perusing menus of five star restaurants online or watching 'Super Swank' on the Travel Channel. And for most women, it's the mere act of stepping off the elevator on the second floor of Tiffany.

I don't know what men look at - autographed baseballs? huge TVs? watches? - but I do know what I look at: designer shoes. And nothing fills my "I need to Google something frivolous and mindless to help me escape reality" void like a trip to the shoe page of saksfifthavenue.com.

Today, if I was a rich girl (na na na...), I would buy these fabulous shoes - the Christian Louboutin "Carnival d'Orsay" Peep-Toe Pumps.

Some day, as God is my witness, I will own just one pair of red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes, although I'll probably prioritize classic black pumps over the gems above. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill...

OK, OK. I'm getting carried away. Fiddle-dee-dee.

Advertising

What I learned at jury duty

• Manhattan is New York County, in case you were wondering and/or ever need to craft your own license plate for a getaway car.

• There is a land that exists below Chinatown and the Lower East Side, to the east of Tribeca and above the Financial district.  I don't know what this land is called.  No man's land, it is.  Have you ever been there?  I'm guessing not, unless you've served jury duty. 

• Even government employees refer to the courthouse as, "You know, the building with the steps in Law & Order."  

• I, on the other hand, refer to it as the site of Carrie and Berger's "Hollywood kiss."  I also looked vigilantly for someone eating a coconut.  And then I realized I was treating Sex and the City as real life, and I stopped.

• The courthouse has wireless Internet.  Should you ever get called to serve, get thee a laptop, or you might shrivel up and die of boredom.  Shriveled, raisin-like boredom.

• Overheard in my jury selection panel:  [potential juror] "At Yale, most of our crime is related to aggressive panhandling."  [attorney] "There's crime in New Haven?"

• Annnnnd this:  [different potential juror] "I work as a music promoter." [the other attorney]: "So you know Ryan Seacrest?"  That's why the lawyers make the big bucks, folks.

• If you want to promptly cross your own name off the potential juror list, follow the lead of a guy in my group who interrupted someone to say, "I think most lawsuits are excessive and that it's ridiculous that anyone can just come down to the courthouse and sue the phone company and that major tort reform needs to happen because the majority of lawsuits are frivolous!  And my girlfriend is a prosecutor and my best friend is a DA."  Done and done.

• You might get lucky and make a new friend.  Take, for example, the pair that sat next to me the entire day yesterday.  They chatted it UP, and I now know that nameless girl is a 27-year old attorney who lives on the Upper West Side.  She would love to be an animal rights activist, because she really loves her three cats.  (But she's not a crazy cat lady: she first had one, then got another so it would have a friend, and then last month she walked by an animal rescue center who was about to put a cat to sleep so she saved it.)  Then there's the nameless gentleman she was chatting with who is the director of a drug/alcohol counseling program in the city.  He lives on the Upper West Side with his wife (recently married, she had one child but it's his first) and their dog, Kona, whose picture he carries in his wallet because, after all, Kona is basically his child.  And to top it all off, given the nice fellow's profession, nameless girl shared her life story about her ex-boyfriend who was a loser and drank too much and said he only had one beer but then had eight.  She was trying to figure out the psychological reasons why she stayed with him so long, but the drug/alcohol counselor did not have any set answers.  Fortunately for all parties involved, though, girl has a blind date tonight... which is convenient, because that's how the fellow met his current wife.

And that's what I learned at jury duty.

Quote of the Day

“If you have five minutes free in New York, you’re a failure. If you have five minutes free in Paris, you’re a success.”

- Marc Jacobs, to NY Mag

Julie & Julia!

My roommate Emily shared this trailer with me today... "Julie & Julia!" I AM SO EXCITED!

... and here's why:

1. It's just happy.
2. "What is the thing you really like to do?" "EAT!" "And you're SO good at it!"
3. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci (reunited from "The Devil Wears Prada!") and Amy Adams (who continues to grow on me with every movie she makes, by the way).
4. It's set in New York City.
5. "Showtime bought my blog for a miniseries."
6. Written and directed by Nora Ephron, the creator of my two favorite movies of all time, "When Harry Met Sally" and "You've Got Mail." (And a fellow purse-hater.)
7. "You should have seen the way those men looked at me... but then they discovered I was fearless."
8. It actually makes me want to cook...
9. ... even though the sight of Amy Adams laying on the kitchen floor crying is how I feel every time I try.
10. The movie is a true story that chronicles an adorable New York City girl who writes a blog that turns into a book that is made into a movie by Nora Ephron that changes her life. In other words, MY DREAM.

Summer Sauciness

Know what I'm loving most about the recent episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol"?

The previews for "The Bachelorette" with Jillian and "So You Think You Can Dance!" Wahooo!

I think that summer TV totally rivals the traditionally more popular fall/spring TV season. If it's on in the summertime, you're guaranteed that it's pure candy for the eyes and ears - no deep thoughts, just light-hearted (sometimes saucy) fun!

So, for your reference, I've put together a simple guide to what I'm most looking forward to watching this summer...

• "The Fashion Show." Premieres on Bravo on May 7. Project Run-what?


• "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." Premieres on Bravo on May 12. "The hair is big, but the drama is bigger." Thanks, Bravo.


• "The Bachelorette." Premieres on ABC on May 18. Five bucks that at least one guy tells Jillian how he likes his hot dog upon stepping out of the limo.


• "So You Think You Can Dance." Premieres on FOX on May 21. Not excited, though, about Mary's hot tamale train...woo WOO!


• "Southern Belles: Louisville." Premieres on SoapNet on May 21. How can you not watch a show that touts itself as "a real-life "Sex and the City" that takes place in the South, but not the South that stereotypes are made of"?!"


• "Entourage." Premieres on HBO on June 28. This falls in the "guilty pleasure" category, along with Chunky Monkey ice cream and Chuck Bass.


• "Project Runway." Premieres on Lifetime on August 20. In case that whole Fashion Show thing doesn't work out.


• "Mad Men." Premieres on AMC in August. My job is nothing like this show. Just FYI.

Get excited for some sass, train wrecks, laughs, crazy accents, fabulous outfits, ridiculous outfits, tears, crazy twists, and more. These shows are guaranteed to bring the spice to your summer!

What about you? Any shows that you're excited about that I absolutely must watch?

A blonde, a brunette and a redhead

A lovely Saturday afternoon and evening with the roommates...

On a Hudson River Pier

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que!

At the terrace party

Get a Clue

I am a procrastinator and am always late.  Combine these two TERRIBLE characteristics, and the result is me sending my dear friend Jessica her birthday card and gift well over a month after the actual day.  Grrrrr!

Despite my tardiness, though, I was super excited to give Jess her gift.  It was somewhat intangible, though, so I had to put my creative thinking cap on.  I decided to take her on a virtual scavenger hunt from New York to Atlanta.  Can you guess the gift based on the clues??

1. In the birthday card:  "Hint #1: It has to do with your visit to New York."  (Intentionally broad... it's only the first clue!)
   
2. Via Twitter: "@jessica_holt Welcome to the virtual birthday scavenger hunt! Hint #2: Hudson River, Lincoln Center, Strawberry Fields..." (Jessica's first guess: "@jamieleanne are we going to the ballet after a day cruise on the river with the ghost of john lennon?" Clever, right?!  But alas, she was incorrect.)
3. On my blog Friday, clue #3 - a picture of Julie Andrews in Sound of Music.  (Jessica guessed that we were going to see "Sound of Music."  Makes sense, but wrong again!)
4. And finally, yesterday I posted a homemade video on Jessica's Facebook wall... imagine this little gem with shark fin motion across the screen and me humming the "Jaws" theme in the background.

Jess guessed correctly after the fourth clue... can you?  I'll help you a bit more:

1. What's one of the most famous things to do in New York?
2. In what area of town are each of these locations?
3. What is Julie Andrews' character's name in "Sound of Music?"
4. What animal is in the video?

That's right... 2. The West Side 3. Maria 4. Shark... you've got it now!  We're going to see West Side Story on Broadway on Saturday!  We've both been dying to see it ever since that amazing performance of "America" on "Dancing with the Stars," and I know it will be fantastic!  

p.s. T-minus 3 days til both Jess AND Jen arrive in the city for a fun-filled long weekend!  I cannot wait to see two of my favorite friends!!

You're Invited

I have always wanted to have a Kentucky Derby party. I have no idea why, as I don't think I've ever actually watched the race. Nor do I follow horse racing. Nor have I ever stepped foot in the state of Kentucky. But I did see Seabiscuit... so there's that.

Nevertheless, I would very much like to host a Derby party. I even tried to plan one last year to no avail... apparently people would rather go to Rio Grande and celebrate Cinco de Mayo than watch a two-minute horse race (even if it is "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports").

This year is no exception. So, Internet friends, welcome to my virtual blog Kentucky Derby Party. Please don't show up at my apartment during the Derby tomorrow, as I will not be there. But in my book, blog comments are a form of partying - should you agree, feel free to go to town.

First up, suggested attire:

Girls: Lilly Pulitzer dress





Boys: Brooks Brothers seersucker pants

Next, and in my opinion, most importantly, HATS. Here are some of my favorites I've seen (and by seen, I mean "saw on Google Image):

And..then there's this one:

Then there's the invitation design. I like this one from NBC's Kentucky Derby Party site:

Next, at my party, we would have a fun pool to guess who will win. According to Sporting News, "Pioneerof the Nile" is a good pick. Works for me. Meet Pioneerof!

And finally, what's a virtual Kentucky Derby party without a mint julep, photo and recipe courtesy of Southern Living:

Classic Mint Julep

Leftover simple syrup keeps refrigerated about one week and perfectly sweetens iced tea.

3 fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon Mint Simple Syrup
Crushed ice
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) bourbon
1 (4-inch) cocktail straw or coffee stirrer
1 fresh mint sprig
Powdered sugar (optional)

Place mint leaves and Mint Simple Syrup in a chilled julep cup. Gently press leaves against cup with back of spoon to release flavors. Pack cup tightly with crushed ice; pour bourbon over ice. Insert straw, place mint sprig directly next to straw, and serve immediately. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select Bourbon.

Yield: Makes 1 (8-ounce) julep

Southern Living, MAY 2003

Happy Derbying, y'all!

Clue #3

Jessica -