Sweet 16 in New York

It's official.
Sweet Maquel turned sweet 16 back in January.
To celebrate the milestone, she got a trip to New York... with her mom, Shawna.

I remember when this girl was born and now she's talking about college.

Scary!

Sadly, I had to work 2 out of the 4 days they were here, but luckily they had sweet Kerny here to babysit them and get them around town.

We started the trip sitting around my apt picking a place for supper.

We ultimately decided on a bite to eat at Artichoke (my most fave pizza in the city - hands down)

and had a tour guide moment on our walk home...

(Empire State building in the foggy rain.)

Friday, the girls spent the day at the Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty went in my place) and Ellis Isle. I wasn't there, but stole these pictures from them.

Friday night Shawna and Maquel had tickets to see Wicked (also part of the birthday celebration) and mom and I went to see Godspell, right next door. The girls forgot to take pictures of themselves at their theater, but Mom and I snuck a picture inside ours. And then we did the Time Square thing.

Some things to note, we won the lottery for Godspell which put you on the floor right along the circular stage, but knowing my Bdway shows, I opted to seat us in some empty spots up higher in the theater. Probably 5 times throughout the show, people in our floor seats were chosen to be on stage and/or splashed with water/confetti. Talk about being "into it." We would've literally been IN the show. No thanks! But we had a GREAT time and Hunter can SANG his A*S off! I almost cried every time he opened his mouth. It was totally unexpected.
Here I am with him, by total chance, after a show back in October.

Saturday started with our typical Flea Market run.
Apple tasting outside...

(even though this picture is mostly of tomatoes)

and treasure hunting inside...

My winning treasure this trip!

I'm still oohing and awing over it.

(P.S. See what a good job I'm doing on my "nail painting" new year's resolution?!)

We had a Shake Shack & cupcake date with Diddy (not pictured)

Then we went to Midtown and did all the touristy stuff that I love to hate. Seriously, that's the best way to describe it. It's a love/hate relationship!

We walked by the temple...

 and then wrapped our day up shopping at TJ Maxx and were shockingly ready for church come morning.

My church is the prettiest church.

We tromped around Central Park all afternoon and then tried to get into the 9/11 memorial that evening, but being very unprepared we made it there only after closing. Fail.

Central Park

My 2nd favorite way to spend a Sunday in Central Park (the first being laying out in Sheeps Meadow)...

Around, but not at, the 9/11 Memorial

(The new twin towers ="The Freedom Towers."
Also, it got dark while we were there.)

Throughout the weekend, we did A LOT of waiting for and riding both the subway and the bus... 

I hope Kelly had a GREAT 16th birthday in the city and I hope it wasn't her last visit!

Now,

for your viewing pleasure,

here is a hilariously embarrassing (for me only) "Through the years" of me and Kel...

Y'welcome!

P.S. When I think of her, all I think of is a blonde, 3yr old toddler, singing in perfect head voice, Ariel's "Part of That Woooooorld." And flaring her nostrils just so on the word, woooorld. So cute. And quite frankly, impressive for a three year old! But also, I think of snuggling her to sleep when she was a wee-thing. It was my most favorite thing in the world.

And that wraps up our President's Day Weekend... Thanks for coming girls!

Love,

~Kare*

Sno-Caps

Some of y'all might be thinking: Whatcha been doin' Kare? Why havent you been blogging when I know you've been doing stuff. The blog-worthy kind of stuff like having guests, seeing broadway shows, going to parties, etc...

 Well instead of blogging about all these things, I've just been sitting here, eating these Sno-Caps like it's the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz or the Miss America Pageant and it's way past my bedtime. But it's not. It's just a plain old none-wizard-of-oz showing Tuesday afternoon and that's ok! Because I'm an adult now. I can eat sno-caps whenever I want! So there...

Also, this is just my way of telling you that there are actual blog posts coming soon...

Stay tuned.

~Legs*

Famous...

We're totally famous.

I mean... wouldnt you say?

So I forgot to remind you (as I said I would) to watch John Mulaney's stand up, "New in Town," as it aired on Comedy Central. But it did. In January. And there we were, Yelz, Diddz, and I, sitting front row, like tiny little famous ants (you'll see us if you look closely), until all of a sudden...

BOOM!

Yelzy!

She's so famous, it's not even funny.

Here we are again, in case you cant spot us above...

So if you really want to see it, you can buy the DVD... Or maybe try looking for it on Hulu? Or Comedy Central OnDemand? Or XfinityTV? It's called, "New In Town."

He's pretty clean and real funny.
See this clip...
Note: That's my bracelet adorned wrist and stringy hair at the 1:40 mark.

Comedy Central Stand-Up
Get More: Jokes,Joke of the Day,Funny Jokes

Don't worry, if you ask politely, we'll give you our autographs and/or sign your babies.

Love,
~Legs*

V-day.

For Valentine's day I had oral s...

urgery! 

Gotcha! 

I think I'm so clever sometimes. 

I can assure you, I am the only one who thinks so. 

But it's true. I spent V-day morning in the oral surgeon's office having my wisdom teeth removed. 

Immediately afterwards I met my Valentine for lunch at none other than Shake Shack. That's right. I had the works even with sutures and a swollen face - a burger, fries, and concrete. 

A hungry girl's gotta do what a girls gotta do.

I got THIS awesome Valentine from Kent. 

I'll wait for you to finish laughing.... it may take a while. I got it hours ago and I'm still going.

Also, after our SNL romp on Saturday night, Lu and I dropped by Judy's V-day party on Wall St. 

And what better time to add the pic of her and I in unintentionally similar outfits at the donations/candy table?...

 I paid $2 (donations went to Women for Women) to rub the "Love Rock" her dad bought her in Vietnam. I believe it's rose quartz and is meant to bring her love. Here's hoping $2 was enough to get the love rock working in my favor... tough luck being as there were some $20's in that jar!

Judy, aka Cupid, with the Love Rock

(stolen from her FB)

Also on Saturday I received THIS Valentine from Diddy.

If that image of her and her dog Vixen doesn't just top off your V-day, I don't know what will.

I don't know if it's the baby-fro or the typo, but I LOVE IT!

Sending lots of love, hearts, and imaginary carnations your way.

Love,

~Legs*

It happened!

Guys.
It really happened!

And the experience at SNL could NOT have been better! 

We got randomly picked out of line to sit on the floor, which those of you who would recognize the SNL theater know that there are only about 30 floor seats available. There's a running joke that it's actually easier to get chosen to host SNL than to get tickets to the show. And we were lucky enough to not only go (thanks to Laura and her career connections), but to sit third row, center aisle! There was only one person in front of me (because they were staggered rows) and one person behind me and at some point or another throughout the show, each of them were asked to move for camera shots. What I'm getting at, is had this been the live show and not the dress rehearsal you'd have seen us FOR SURE on TV! We could reach out and touch the cast as they came on and off the stage, and maybe I accidentally kicked a camera man during one sketch. My bad.

P.S. There was no photography allowed in the theater and out of fear of being kicked out of our sweet seats - or possibly all together, I obeyed the rule - which is rare. We snuck a few pictures in line before heading in, but that's the most scandalous we got.

As we were brought past the others in line and shuffled down some back stage stair case, we had to got to squeeze through a shared doorway with the great Seth Meyers and then saw Andy Sandberg as we waited to be seated. You wait backstage because "backstage"  is actually in the front end of the studio. It's kind of awesome and retro and I really wish I worked on the show in some way shape or form. It's controlled chaos and without any one single person, no matter how low on the totem pole, that should could not run smoothly, or possibly at all.

Lorne (that's right, THE Lorne Michaels) is on top of his game to say the least! He stays on the floor for the ENITRE show (dress rehearsal and live) going from set to set, supervising what goes on from all aspects. It's crazy intense, but also super admirable. Like the owner of a restaurant that's actually back in the kitchen slaving away and then makes the rounds to be sure that customers are satisfied. It's no wonder he's as successful as he is - he makes sure the job gets done and things stay funny! Like a boss.

The dress rehearsal is about 30 minutes longer than the live show that viewers see at home. They do extra sketches and then cut what doesn't work before air. As I said before, Zooey Deschanel was the host and youtube sensation, Karmin, was the musical guest. They both put on a GREAT show! There was a HILARIOUS cameo by Nicholas Cage and even the handsome Jean Dujardin made a quick appearance in a sketch (he's the oscar nominated guy from 'The Artist' that recently won the Golden Globe for best actor and he's french and super dreamy).

I was seriously stressing what to wear right up until the day of - then I decided whatever I ended up wearing wouldn't make a difference as to whether I had a good time so I let it go and wore the first thing I put on. It was a combo of what you see here.

 I opted for my nude BCBGirls pumps (by the suggestion of others), my "new" Jcrew jeans from goodwill, an old blouse (also from goodwill), a vintage metal belt from Pippin, and my Target blazer. I also carried an amazing little vintage purse (not pictured). I chose the blazer as an homage to SNL's Weekend Update and the polka-dot blouse because Zooey Deschanel is known for "rocking a lot of polka-dots" and being quirky. And really, what's more quirky than polka-dots anyway?

(My cute purse. I couldn't not add it.)

Did I already say that we had THE best time? Because we did. 

THE BEST.

Once in a life time!

But there's still one thing I'm not quite sure of... How did we go the whole 2hour dress rehearsal without even ONE of the cast members coming down off of the stage to propose to me? It seems strange, no? If I can figure that one out soon, I'll let you know.

Love,

Legs*

(My sneaky elevator shot of the NBC carpet.)

It's happening...

Guys.
It's really happening...

Because I have the fanciest and most generous of friends (also, she's funny and gorge), I'm going to the SNL dress rehearsal tomorrow night... I got this pix-message from her today (her = Lu).

The dilemma of what to wear set in a few weeks ago, immediately upon the news that we were going. It's a real stumper, especially since I've got a crush on every guy (and even 1 or 2 girls) in the cast and fully expect one, if not all of them, to fall madly in love with me based on my choice... also, because our post-show plans are undetermined, but could call for some fancies. The host is Zooey Deschannel (add her and Laura-Lu for that matter to my list of crushes) with musical guest Karmin?

Needless to say, my excitement is through the roof! Even in it's lulls, SNL has always been one of my most favorite shows of all time. Whether it's hitting or missing, I'm impressed and entertained by the talent of the cast, the hype of live television, the quick changes, I love it ALL!
As one of the longest running shows in history (I'm assuming), somehow the integrity of the show is maintained - 'ridiculousness for the sake of laughter' - and I appreciate that. It is truly a New York City, if not American, institution and I am both a New Yorker and an American. God bless the S.N.L?

Love,
~Kare*

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, 4 girls in a tub

- Please note how no one in this photo is paying us any attention. Seeing 4 chicks in a tub in the middle of a bar is the LEAST strange thing these New Yorkers have seen! - 

Last weekend Traci, Aleta, Yelz, and I met up for dinner before heading out to celebrate Roman's birthday. In case you've forgotten, Roman is Yelzies' brother who was kind enough to invite us to the Hamps with he and his buddies back in Aug (even though I was still blogging about it in Sept). Poor Roman had the spotlight slowly shifted from him when we got to the bar, Bathtub Gin, and realized there was a bathtub in the center of the room. 

Cue photo shoot of girls and a tub and not one picture of the birthday boy. 

This bar was my first speakeasy. We unintentionally stumbled upon the correct address when we were at the cross streets confused and unaccomplished. We literally dove into the first door we could reach in order to get out of the first (and so far only) FREEZING cold night we've had. Just so happened that once we stepped into what appeared to be a cafe, we noticed a hidden door. Jackpot!

Happy Birthday Roman?

(That's him in the upper right hand corner above)

Team Bobsled.

Thanks Bathtub Gin for giving us a fun prop for our weekly photo op.

And happy birthday Roman. Seriously.

Love,

~Kare*