2012, a Video.

Below is a little something I threw together to represent 2012.  Unfortunately, I did not video tape enough AT ALL last year, so while I wish I had more, it will have to do.  2012 was a hard year for personal reasons that I'll be sure to divulge at some point, but it was also an amazingly fantastic year in it's own way.  When I watch this, I try not to focus on my shoddy editing job and instead see how blessed and lucky we are.  And I also see how important it is to make memories like this one.  I've always felt pressure to be a historian of my life because you never know when you'll need to look back and "remember when"...

Click here for our Youtube yearly recap:  2012.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to see the video on mobile devices yet.  I swear, I am such a NOVICE....at EVERYTHING having to do with keeping a blog! Ahh.

Okay, enjoy!

Fun Times...

I have a best friend whom I've known since the second grade.  I asked her to play my "Mom" on the playground at the age of 7 and she shyly obliged.  She is just like that.  Agreeable, ready for fun (playing house used to be so fun), and great.  Years passed and it wasn't until our Junior year of high school that things changed from friend status to THE friend status.  Out of nowhere, I noticed that she was trustworthy beyond the scope of my other friends and from there it stuck.  We were a team.

I love having a friend like her.  I never second guess it.  SO...in a way to move on from this love-fest, all I want to say is that this girl is getting married and I'm so excited.  Her bachelorette party was last Friday...

Dry Bar for some hair stylin.

The Bach.

Pedi-cab after getting our mane done...not the smartest.

230 Fifth Roof top

Touristy posing.

The Bach and her sista's.

Fly-walking.

Napkin roses are pretty exciting.

We had our hair done at DRYBAR...which I can't say enough amazing things about.  40 dollars, any hair style, super quick, so comfortable, and RELAXING.  Their slogan is: No cuts, no color, just blowouts.  

A must-do.

xoxo

L

Whyyyy?!

I am beyond tired today.  It's like...impossible...to just...be. 

I have the day off (thank you, freelance world), so I guess that's a positive even though I'm not sure it really is.  Working is inspirational, unlike today.  I really wish I had the energy to edit my book, send out a query letter, or even find a kickass dinner recipe for tonight.  Alas, I do not.  Why must days like this exist?  My brain is processing thoughts slower than sludge slipping through a pin hole and it isn't cool.

Oh fun.  I just received an email asking me to work on a new Lifetime show next week.   I guess I can feel somewhat accomplished now, even though it's kinda sad that RECEIVING an email is my big whoop for the day.  Well, that and going to Whole Foods with my sis and neph.  That counts for something, right?

Okay, this has to stop.  I'm forcing myself to do 29 jumping jacks followed by an hour writing in Diary Girl.  Ready, set...GET MOTIVATED!

NYC Love

I've been living in the city this week with my hubby (sans our super pup Remy) due to an unpredictable work schedule of mine.  I was set to have night edits starting at 6pm and ending...whenever they ended which left me a tad worried.  The last train to Maplewood leaves NYC around 1am and I was scared that I may not make it in time.  Missing the train would be horrifying; inevitably leaving me abandoned, homeless, with nowhere to lay my little head but Penn Station's urine soaked linoleum.  HOWEVER, as bleak as that sounds, I was even more scared TO make the train home and endure the 8 minute walk to my front door (train station parking is impossible) all by my lonesome to possibly endure a mugging or worse...a deer mauling.   Needless to say, (my imagination needs saving) staying in NYC was my only real choice.

With two of my best friends off for a whirlwind vaca/business trip to Belgium and Paris leaving their Hells Kitchen apartment wide open AND my parents willing to adopt Remy for the week, The hubs and I were sold.  It was back to the place we met.  Our old stomping grounds. NYC, baby!

We've been here for 3 days now and let me tell you...in the 1.5 years that I have not lived here, nothing has changed.

Immediately after setting my stuff down, I scoured my new territory for a cafe from which to work and landed on Cafe Europa across from the Letterman building. Inside, I grabbed my Hazelnut coffee and went-a-lookin for a seat.  What do you know? None of their 65 tables were free.  Of course not!  It WAS 3:15 on a Wednesday, after all!  Prime lunch/dinner/whothehellknows time for everyone.  I resigned to taking my coffee outside and people-watching from a little cement planter.  Work shmerk.

Next up, I met with my friend to grab a second lunch.  Do I normally eat two lunches, you may ask.  The answer is, "only in New York."  The second lunch was an old reminder that "if a friend is in your neighborhood, do ANYTHING to keep them there."  They're hungry, but you already ate?  Who cares!  Once they leave the confines of your 'hood, they're gone.  And let's be honest, you don't feel like riding out to Brooklyn to visit them, either.  In the city with the best mass transportation system, a subway ride can be as daunting as a plane ride.

After the second lunch on Wednesday, everything fell into place.  The 5 story walk up.  The crowds at 10pm on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The take out menus.  The happy hour specials that end at 11pm.  The huge dogs peeing all over the defenseless plastic newspaper holders.  The entire block that smells like throw up.  The feeling that you can't get where you're going fast enough.  And just everything.  New York was the first place that I ever really fell in love with because it evokes an actual feeling from me.  I may not miss living there every day...but I couldn't live without it.

My first book.

I wrote a book.  And it was hard.  It sucked me dry and it took a long time.  Like, a really really annoyingly long time.  Nobody tells you about that part of writing a book, how long it will take.  All anyone says is that it's "hard" or "worth it" or "such a great creative release," but they don't say, "Oh you're writing a book?  That takes a long ass time," because like all things in life - things in the past are but a distant memory.  Once you get past it, you forget the pain. You forget the struggle.  You lie to yourself and think it was great and totally worth it.

Clearly, I'm not there yet.

Although my book hasn't been published yet, I still have to believe it will be.  I mean, it took so long to write, it has to be.  There really is no other option. Not for me, anyway. 

My book is a compilation of my very own high school diary entries as I navigate my way through the 4 most confusing years of my life.  Diary Girl is a tale of self-exploration, insecurity, and learning.  It is my life, but in a way it could be anybody's.  So, I guess that's why I did it.  And I guess that's why I'm starting this blog, too.  Because no matter how old I get, I'll always be a diary girl, through and through.

I am a diary girl.  This is my life.