just ed, me and hundreds of screaming teen girls

i've mentioned before that i HEART ed sheeran.  myself, netter and our buddy cara got tickets to attend his show at terminal 5 which occured last friday night.  i was so ready to rock out to his voice, guitar strums and loop harmonies after a long week.  we arranged to meet at 7pm when doors would open for the 7:30pm show.  when we arrived to get access to the venue we noticed not just a huge long line that wrapped the block but also the demographic that was standing around waiting.  they were teenage girls.  lots and lots of teenage girls. 

 

let me back up - i've now seen ed perform a total of four times in about five months.  the first three shows had a crowd comprised of people like me - professional, late 20s/early 30s somethings or ex-patriots of the UK.  we, as a concert going demographic, tend not to have a high pitched scream when we're excited or happy about a performance.  nor do we yell at every possible opportunity 'i love you ed!'  we are courteous and keep our mouths shut when the artist asks us to shush so he can sing a sappy song.  in effect, we are great group to spend hours listening to music together.  the teenage girls have yet to learn proper etiquette at ed's shows.  kinda worried they won't learn in the near future either.

 

for a very specific reason that netter educted me about, the young teenage girls found the magic of ed and convinced their parents to shell out $30 so they could go to his concert on a friday night in september.  apparently my buddy ed wrote a song for a little boy band called one direction.  since one direction is the boy band du jour, their fanbase will ravenously grasp anything or anyone that is in association with this precious british quartet.  hence, they found ed because he wrote songs for them and is there "mate".  which resulted in me spending my friday evening with a bunch of kids who made me feel deaf by their screams rather than the rocking goodness coming from huge speakers suspended from the sky.

 

one positive is the girls were all short so i had a relatively clear view of the stage.  bonus.

ode to new york city

if i could write poetry this would be the post to bust it out.  but alas, my talents lie elsewhere.  the reason for my wish to write in verse is that today is my 10 year anniversary with new york city.  i can officially call myself a new yorker.  this city is the one place i have lived the longest consecutively in my young life.  here's a brief run down of the biggest highlights of my relationship with new york city in chronological order:

• moved to new york with two large suitcases and a box of linens
• my first apartment was on 92nd and 2nd street on the fourth floor of a building with a pizzeria on the ground floor
• three weeks after moving i got a job with the NBA retired players association as a coordinator - also worked at bath & body works to supplement the income
• new york fun day was born in december of 2002
• in spring of 2004 i flew on my first international flight to land in paris - spent 5 glorious days in the city of lights with netter and doc 
• survived the blackout that turned off the much needed A/C in the heat of august for three days
• in june of 2005 i left the nba retired players association to take a job with a hedge fund
• moved into my very own apartment in june of 2007...didn't even care that it was on the 5th floor of a walk up because it was my first home
• took more trips to the european continent including rome, florence, london (x2), prague (x2), vienna, budapest and again to paris
• spent 6 weeks caged in my apartment due to a broken ankle sustained at the home of my buddy clare
• took a helicopter tour over the city with my brother flex (my gift to him for helping me move)
• moved into my second very own apartment in 2009 and this building had laundry AND an elevator

this city is hard to live and thrive in.  if you don't absolutely love it then it makes absolutely no financial sense or common sense to continue to call it your home.  there have obviously been times that i have thought about leaving to be closer to family but i also have a family here in the city.  i'm grateful for the many wonderful people i have met throughout my 10 years in this amazing city.  that is what has made these 10 years fly by and mostly filled with happiness and joy.  the opportunity to watch amazing broadway productions and museum exhibits not to mention the great food doesn't hurt either.

i love this city.  those cheap touristy shirts that everyone has to take home really mean something to me.  i love new york.

personal realization #12 - doc's example

like most people i have an end of day routine that includes the customary washing face, applying eye cream, brushing teeth, putting on the comfy pjs, turning off all the lights in my living room/kitchen and then grabbing my "put me to sleep" book of choice and catapulting myself onto my queen size bed.  there is one thing that i have rarely taken advantage of in my nightly routine and that is to write the days events, feelings, observations in a journal.  

my former roomie doc was a shining example of one who wouldn't end her day without taking the time, whether short or long, to document her day.  she filled up journal after journal with details of her life and those moments that were important or mundane.  i was always very impressed by her dedication.  (she also was my roomie who helped me make a habit of making my bed in the morning but that story is for another time.)  i just wish i had doc's journal writing routine as part of my evening activities.

tonight i wrote in my journal.  i do actually own one.  it generally sits on the bottom shelf of my bedroom bookcase collecting dust.  i think tonight's frame of mind spoke to the activity of journal writing.  there are many thoughts going through my mind and many emotions going through my heart.  i wanted to remember and i didn't want to share on this blog so i grabbed that buried journal that i bought in 2008 and wrote some things down.  i don't necessarily know that i feel better or worse after documenting but i do know that i was able to see things just a tad bit clearer.  maybe that is what doc obtains when she writes as well...a bit of clarity and the willingness to listen.  

the journal is now going to be placed in a more prominent spot on my desk/vanity.  visibility of the journal will hopefully remind me of this evening's moment of clarity and emotion purging so when i might be feeling overwhelmed, happy, joyful, sorrowful or anything else, i can document it and obtain the achievement of self reflection.  so i thank you doc and your exemplary ways.  love you.

my friend doc who always makes me smile

devotion to a friend

this year's U.S. Open has been one of the best i can remember.  i got to go three different times.  the tornado that causesd the 2nd men's semifinal to be postponed so i couldn't go on sunday didn't even dampen my spirits because it meant that i could buy a ticket for the men's final that would now take place on monday.  as i went to my trusty friendly website stubhub looking for my ticket i got a text message from my bff 4-eva clare.  she was coming to new york and would need to slightly change her plans to include a sleepover on monday night.  my dream to attend the men's final and potentially see andy murray win his first grand slam title were now replaced with excitement to hang with clare.  but if ever there was an example of my devotion to a friend it was the night i chose to spend time with her over watching amazing tennis produced by mr. andy murray and mr. novak djokovic.

 

and thank goodness for the us open app on my iPhone that allowed me to check the score every 5-7 minutes.  i'm sure clare didn't mind that my mood would swing depending on what i found on that app.  that evening did teach her that she never wants to go to a live sporting event with me.   like never.

 

congrats to andy murray.  well deserved and i hope the beginning of many more to come.

 

 

 

foreshadowing of fall

it's beginning to look and feel a lot like fall.  hip hop hooray!  while i didn't think the weather experienced in nyc this past summer was horrid, i do always look forward to the light sweater wearing days of autumn when the air is crisp and the trees are glorious with color.  i have even bought a couple new blazers to wear while trapsing to and from my mass transit of choice.  soon the wardrobe swap will take place and drinking hot chocolate on a saturday morning will become the norm.  even though we are a few weeks off it is always fun to notice the changes that trigger the season known as autumn.  some of the current foreshadowing events of fall are:

• no longer run air conditioning at night to combat the humidity - instead just crack open the bedroom window
• needed to wear a blazer and actual shoes to work on tuesday because the temp was 62 degrees at 8am
• started thinking about annual fall foliage vacay with netter to pick apples and take pictures of the majestic new england foliage
• found myself on the 9th floor of macy's herald square to peruse their coat/jacket section - already on the hunt for my 2012/2013 new coat
• us open tournament is over - CONGRATS to Andy Murray!!!
• tax season is upon me - meaning i have to submit and process over 100 tax returns for the good old employer
• reviewed the upcoming fall broadway season to scope out what shows i want to see
• first inclination is to avoid the ice cream aisle at the grocery and instead buy boxes of nestle hot chocolate
• week 1 of nfl season is done - 'nuff said
• can't talk to my joani whenever i want because she is back to work as an award winning junior high school teacher
• fall tv premieres are happening now - although downton abbey doesn't come to the states until early 2013 (another reason i want to be a brit living in the UK)
• listened to my first Christmas song since january

i'm excited for this upcoming season which is why i chose to use a picture i took last year of poet's walk in central walk on an early October morning as my blog's banner photo.  love the color and light that occurs in the autumn. 

and one last thing, i like to refer to falling leaves as "golden dewdrops from the overlords of autumn".  just an fyi.

tennis fun (aka addiction #2)

hi, my name is pinky and i'm a tennis-a-holic.  i can't get enough of tennis.  i constantly want to play tennis.  watch tennis.  read about tennis matches.  follow tennis players on twitter or instagram.  buy tennis skirts.  plan trips to locations with tennis tournaments.  you get my drift.  i even dragged three friends to the tennis hall of fame located in newport, rhode island - in the rain! (photographic evidence below)

so i have done nothing in the evenings but watch U.S. Open matches whether on my lovely 46" HDTV named Matt Bomer, my lovely WiFi iPad 2 named Rory or via the MacBook Pro upon which i am currently typing.  thank goodness for the smart people at IBM and USTA for developing a most awesome app that contains a smorgasbord of information including watching matches in real time.  i love these two weeks of life because it is completely ok to be tennis junkie pinky.  no one can blame me for losing all free time to the masters of the blue courts in queens.

my love of tennis started as a child.  my parentals used to play together while us kidlets enjoyed the jungle gym.  then my brother big lug and i started hitting together which was better than hitting each other.  i played tennis for my junior high team and have a mean serve if i can get it in the court.  but last summer my brother flex destroyed me 6-0.  

my favorite players growing up were gabriella sabatini and jennifer capriati.  but my heart, tennis soul and devotion belonged to pete sampras.  loved watching that man play especially if he played my tennis homie numerous dos andre agassi.  do you remember this totally epic and awesome nike tennis commercial?

i didn't realize when i moved to new york how much i would look forward to us open time at the end of each summer.  i have shelled out hundreds of dollars to attend matches over the last ten years.  there was only one year that i didn't go because my session was rained out.  that was the year i pledged to always buy tickets to two sessions so that i would never put all of my us open time in one basket.  

my favorite us open moments were when my joani came two years ago.  we spent two straight days at the open where we watched all sorts of matches including doubles.  we had such an amazing time together watching the world's greatest.  i told joani that she has to choose between a trip to hawaii or a trip to wimbledon for her birthday next year.  tough choices my joani.

so that is the story of my pinky tennis junkie addiction.  just for those playing along, this year, i went to the first night session on monday august 27th, the day session on monday, september 3rd and will be enjoying the men's super saturday action on saturday, september 8th.  crossing fingers that my american tennis crush andy roddick can blast past del potro to make a run to the semis before he retires.

for any within the reading of this blog post, i implore you to learn about the game of tennis.  as i mentioned in a comment on my buddy lind-z's blog - it's a game where handsome men routinely lift their shirts to wipe the sweat from their brow allowing a lovely glimpse of chiseled abs.  apparently that's all i need to become addicted to the game.

pictures from us opens past:

joani's first trek to arthur ashe stadium

my buddy steph and i after watching an andy roddick match

roger federer wins the 2009 trophy versus andy murray

watching a match on the grandstand



can you spot joani?