Me & Airports

It was December 2007 and I got up super early for my super early flight. Bags packed, trash taken out, Christmas presents in tote- good to go. Hailed a cab, no prob. Cabs are easy to come by at 5am. JFK, please. I'm half asleep as he pulls into JFK. Go to the check-in. Type in conf number. "I'm sorry there's no flight for this number". WHAT? Look at the printed itinerary... dang. LaGuardia. No time to think.

Run outside. Hail a cab, "LAG as fast as you can!". I get there and have 40 mins til my flight took off but amongst the mile long line of everyone else who wanted to get out of NYC and somewhere else, he flight ppl said it was too late for me to make it to my flight. Next one was three days later. No way. Tears. Call my Dad who books a train from Penn to DC. I get in another cab, "Penn Station as fast as you can!" I get on the train to DC. My wonderful Dad drove from NC to DC (6 hour trip) to pick me up. Merry Christmas!

Well. Last week I booked a flight for this weekend because I wanted to be home w/ my Mama cause we just found out she has breast cancer and Lulu's birthday was yest. I book the flight for the last weekend of the month. On Friday I'm at work and go to check on my flight. "You need at least 24 hours before your flight..." WHAT? I look closely at my printed itinerary... dang. I booked for the last weekend in April, not March. Gah!

Frantic, I call bff Allison who saves the day and finds a relatively cheap last minute flight w/ the same times, but arrives in Raleigh. I book it and come home and have a wonderful weekend w/ all. Then tonight my flight is out of Raleigh and my Dad drives me down. I say goodbye in the midst of shining sun and blue skies. Go to check in and oh yeah, my flight is CANCELLED. Something to do w/ the weather in NYC but I call roomie and she says it's sunny. WHAT? Anyways, I finally get to the Delta rep and after many options, she books me for a flight tomorrow morning at 6am. Whew, I can get to work on time.

But... the only thing is, the flight's out of Greensboro. So, I call my Dad- who is almost to Greensboro at this point and bless his heart, he comes allll the way back to pick me up.

That, friends, is my experience w/ airports. But at least I have one more night w/ the fam! :D

FAIL

On my way home tonight, I was reminded of the movie The Devil Wears Prada when Nigel says how you know you're doing well at work when your personal life goes up in a flame (something to that effect). My day at work is so crazy I barely have time to send personal emails so I had to say no to a work happy hour tonight because I have stayed late for the past, oh, every night and have to get my life together and pack before I leave tomorrow.

Anyway, I came home and saw further proof of my absence and home life neglect. My poor plant! But actually, I'm not real sure what it is. Three weeks ago I planted annual seeds and low & behold this is what came up. No flowers. Huh. I think I'm going to start over and plant herbs. You can't mess that up, right?
















But this reminded me of a silly & stupid, yet hilariously funny blog I sometimes read when I need a good laugh. These poor people don't even give anyone a chance. It's just marked with FAIL and thrown into the pool of 'who are these people?' pictures.

All I could think about was a picture of my plant with the FAIL on it. I got a good laugh out of it. :D



I'm now off to cheer on my Devils! Go DUKE!!

Look out!

Cause I'm GOING HOME this weekend to be w/ my Mama!!!

Picture of the Day

Spring Cookies!

I won't even go into allll the ways the North and South are different. But on this occasion, I usually happen to forget this important difference until right about now. Um, yeah. It's the Winter that will not end. I hear stories of budding trees, blooming flowers down South and flip flops but all Nature has to show up here is its bare trees with microscopic buds in the midst of 32 degree weather.

I'm sure I could handle it better if I was from the North, but as a Southerner, it just seems odd to HAVE to wear heavy coats, hats and gloves in late March.

At any rate, I decided to make a new Spring cookie: Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies. Yum. They're quite tasty, easy to make and will make you feel like it's Spring in your heart even if it's freezing outside. Plus, putting them on a platter full of green grass and CP's best spots makes me long for warmer weather even more.

A rare occurence

Who doesn't love Etsy?

LA had a link to this Etsy seller who is selling the prints below. I loved them, especially the egg beater one. I think I'm going to buy it to go in my kitchen.

Ooooh pretty

I was just blog surfing and my friend Sheila had on her blog a few ideas for Mom necklaces. Seeing them reminded me of what I gave the Mother of the boys, whom I used to nanny. I put myself in charge of giving bday/Christmas presents from the boys (or at least the making of cards and giving somewhat small, but thoughtful gifts on their behalf).

I forget the occassions, but one time they (I) got her a sterling silver bracelet with two boy silhouette charms. Each had the boys initials as well and their birthdate on the back. I think she has since added different charms w/ their picture inside, etc.

The next gift I got her (perhaps Mother's Day?) was a necklace with two discs w/ the boys' names and attached was their color birthstone. I'm telling you, out of all of the music, gymnastic and preschool classes I attended- I got to hang out with a ton of mothers and this was the trend. It really is the sweetest necklace.

This is similar, except there was one name in the center of each disc and only one stone attached.













So there you have it. Those are great ideas to get for a new mom or mother of young children. :)

A day in the life

Ok, so it's more like a week in the life. Here are just a few pictures to recap the past few.

I passed by Abercrombie and Fitch on 5th and ran into these models. Ow ow. Needless to say this was a hute hit and the picture does not show the masses of girls gathered to get their picture w/ them. I was tempted to do the same but then I remembered that they're like 10 years younger than me.

Ew. Chinatown.

All week long they've been filming in front of my building for Angelina Jolie's new movie, Salt. I often asked the camera crew guys if she was around, but I always seemed to miss her. I was hoping to offer my nanny services. Wouldn't that be so awesome to hang out w/ ZZ & Shiloh?

It's starting to look like Spring in the City!

Oh but wait. Yesterday, on the first official day of Spring, I woke up and there was SNOW. I couldn't believe it! Look at those huge flakes!!

For you, Mama

Missing you and cheering you on in NYC!
Love you!

The best blog shoutout of all

I love you, Mom!

Love,
Carrie

Pops

Just listened to my voicemail messages and got one from my Dad, which I find particuarly funny:

Dad: "Hi Sweet Carrie. This is your Father, your earthly Father...."

:)

ASU reunion!

Last week, two of my favorite App friends were in town!! Cam & Jenn came up to NYC and it was so great to catch up and visit. It made me miss our fun days in the mountains of NC- playing on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hanging out in Boone.

Pi love

An acquaintance of mine is getting married today. He works at Google and is pretty much the coolest nerd I know. His soon-to-be wife is also brilliant and from what I can tell, they are the perfect match.

And as we all know, pi = 3.14159265.

They're getting married on 3/14 and the ceremony starts at 1:59pm.

If that's not the sweetest, most fitting thing, I don't know what is.

Congrats Nate and Karen!

Is it just me...

Or does basil, when old, taste like licorice?

Has anyone else experienced/tasted this?! Today I got a salad where you can pick all these toppings they can put in. Well, I picked chopped up basil and it was not fresh b/c it tasted like licorice and made the whole salad taste like it as well! I should've just put in a Twizzler.

Anyways, I've noticed this before and asked other people... but I will now open forum it to you, blog world. Does someone know what I'm talkin about?

Happy Four

Only four months until Allison & Brian's big, wonderful and happy wedding. Their big day is so soon! I can't wait!! :D

But what I also can't wait for is when Yosef fires his gun at the end of the ceremony ;)

(for clarification, he's not really coming to the wedding but sometimes we like to think that it's not a wedding w/o our favorite mountain man)

Gossip Girl Here

Spotted in Midtown, right around the corner from where I work: the filming for Gossip Girl! Aaahh, so fun! I stood out there for a while and watched them stand around for what seemed like forever and then film for 1 minute. It was well worth it.

XOXO,
Gossip Girl

All I wanted...

...was for Tyler Hansbrough to cry like a little girl on Senior Night in Chapel Hill.

Yeah Carrie, it's your birthday. We're gunna party like it's your birthday.

This past weekend Allison, Ginna & Michelle came up to the City for a visit! It was such a wonderful time. We went to dinners, made brunch, relaxed and laughed a lot.

Allison was the official photographer of the trip so go to her Fbook profile to see more pics. But here are a few I took from the weekend. Thanks so much for coming up, yall! What a fun time :D

LA Style

So my friend LeeAnne shares my passion for stationery and also loves making handmade cards. She mailed me a card for my birthday and it is the cutest card I've ever seen! I loved it so much that I had to have it framed. Gosh, I just think it's the best thing ever. Way to go LA! I'm not sure where I'll hang it, perhaps in the kitchen. But I think it's darling. :D




















(I think the part on the bottom of the frame is my reflection from taking the picture. Also, be sure to click on the pic to get a close up. Thanks again, LA!)

Introducing...

Oliver Twist Dolin-Young!

My friends Miriam and Chris adopted this sweet dog from a pet resuce center. Back in the Fall they fostered a handful of dogs and then found Ollie to keep forever and ever. Here's the website to see more information!

And now for the cuteness himself, in a Snuggie. ;)

Little things...

Cause it's the little things in life that are fun to blog about

Ok, so now that it's (almost) Spring, I had to buy a plant and soil and annual seeds (for another pot). What fun! Let's just hope that the plant doesn't go and die on me- tends to be the trend w/ my houseplants.

Here are the cookies I made for my Dad's bday. I used a roll out chocolate cookie recipe and then *tried* to make them into a pretzel shape but that was too time consuming. So I ended up rolling into balls, thumb printing and then filling w/ melted chocolate. I put on pink sprinkles to match the salmon (pink) shirt I got for Dad at BBro's. :D

Here's the latest & greatest UES find: Effy's Cafe!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday to the best Dad in the whole world!!!

Greatest picture ever

This picture was taken at Holden Beach back in 2002. It is priceless. I think I asked this woman to take a picture of us and clearly she was not sober enough to do so and insisted on being in our family picture. I couldn't help but snap away cause this is too funny. Check out my Grandmother's face!

Roar

In like a lion (see exhibit A & B of our terrace this morning) and let's hope March goes out like a lamb!

Done!

Done! I'm done! I win! I'm finished. Buh-bye Uncle Sam, see you next year. C'mon April 15th. I'm ready. Cause I'm done.

If there is one thing that makes my blood boil and causes me to cuss and cry like a crazy person, it's taxes. Mainly because I have had such a bad experience (ie: last year) and ever since then I carefully examine any "move" that would cause that disaster to happen again and AVOID it at all costs. Seriously. I hate taxes. Don't get me wrong, I understand I have to pay and "don't mind" paying taxes. But- I'd rather have it taken out each paycheck than to tear out a check and write a little IOU to Uncle Sam come April. Gah!

But, my friends, not this year. Thanks to Turbo Tax and it's awesomeness, I'm done.

I called to tell my Dad (this being one of those go-to Dad things) and told him the great news that I've filed and can check that off my list. He, of course, was proud that I had done it all on my own but then said "Now go read Romans 13."

Did I mention that my Dad is awesome?

Did I also mention that my Dad's birthday is in 6 days?!!

And, finally, did I mention that I'M DONE!!