February Celebrations

It is only the 20th and I’ve already done my fair share of celebrating and/or partying this month. First a Super Bowl watch party, then a Luau office party, then my 1-year NY anniversary celebration, then my and Alex’s 7 months together and then to top it all off, Valentine’s Day!

First was the Super Bowl party on Feb 6. Alex and I went to his brother’s house to watch the Steelers take on the Packers. Of course my Kansas City Chiefs nor either NY football team was in it so the game itself was pretty pointless to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love football and knew it would be a good game, but it’s just not the same when you don’t have a team to cheer for. So what did I do? I chose a team. I decided to root for Pittsburgh because I have a few co-worker friends who are fans and I wanted them to get a victory. Alex of course decided to go against me and root for Green Bay. It ended up being a pretty good game, even though “my team” didn’t win. Of course Alex knows I hate to lose, as I am competitive by nature, so he did his fair share of rubbing it in that “his team” won, but it was all fun and games. I enjoyed the game, the food, the company and of course, the commercials. I wasn’t as impressed as past years, but there were a few ads that made me laugh or think, “good marketing strategy.” One example of a chuckle ad was the child Darth Vader using his mind power to start the car while his Dad was inside the house pushing the keyless-entry remote starter button (I will talk more about Darth later, weird I know, but you’ll see why). A good example of the latter was the Faith Hill Teleflora ad, where she tells a guy to “write what’s in his heart” as he’s struggling with what to say on a personal note he’s going to send with the flowers he’s sending his girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. He then writes, “Dear Kim, your rack is unreal.” I literally thought, “Funny, reaching the target audience, timely as Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, overall, good strategic planning on this one!” This was one of many ads that I made marketing strategy remarks on and eventually, Alex stopped me and said something like, “Lisa, you’re ruining this for me because I have no idea what you’re talking about.” LOL, I laughed and said “Sorry, I can’t help that my mind works like that, don’t blame me, blame KU’s J-School!” :-)

With NY experiencing a pretty harsh winter, it’s easy to start experiencing a slight case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. That being said, Patch decided to have a Luau at the office! What better to fight the winter blues than a Hawaiian Luau? Because I have the pleasure of planning events as part of my job at Patch, I was lucky enough to help plan and participate in a really great office happy hour fully equipped with decorations, food and drinks! The piña coladas were delicious and let’s just say I left the office this particular Friday feeling pretty good, which worked out nicely as I left work and headed to Arriba Arriba to celebrate my 1-year NY anniversary with my Tio Marty, Alex and friends.

Piña colada, yum!

Alex and I really enjoyed catching up with my Tio, Teddy and Jixxy (2 friends I met through my Tio right after I moved to NY) while eating delicious Mexican food and drinking the best margs in the city! My first time to Arriba Arriba was during my first trip to NYC when I was 18 and underage drinking (sorry Mom). I ended up getting so drunk off just 2 margaritas that I ended the night throwing up in my uncle’s toilet and sleeping on the bathroom floor. During another visit to NYC with 2 of my college roommates, we enjoyed 2 pitchers of margaritas at Arriba during our meal with both Martin and Jim. Then I moved to NY and have been frequenting the restaurant ever since. So when my Tio suggested Arriba Arriba as the venue for my anniversary celebration, I couldn’t think of a better place. During dinner I thought about everything that has taken place in the last year and it definitely put a smile on my face. Like I mentioned in my last post, it truly has been an amazing year and I’m so thankful for all the opportunities I’ve been given and proud of my accomplishments over the past 365 days. It will definitely be a year I will never forget!

Tio Martin, Teddy & Jixxy at Arriba Arriba

Alex and me at Arriba

As of February 9, Alex and I have been together for 7 months. It’s crazy to think how quickly the time went by. Sometimes it feels like just the other day I was crushing on the mailman trying to make small talk and forcing myself to “put myself out there.” I’m typically not a shy person, but when it came to meeting guys, I wasn’t very confident and definitely didn’t ever let guys know I was interested in them. After multiple chats with my sisters and friends about this “Alex guy” I had a crush on, I received enough encouragement to “hit on” him. I’m so glad my flirtatiousness lead to the exchange of numbers and soon after, a first date. Going out on a limb turned out to be totally worth it and Alex and I have been on some amazing dates and continue to really enjoy spending time together. Recently, we’ve been spending our time watching classic movies. It started because Alex would quote movies and I had no idea what he was talking about. I mean I love movies and watch them all the time, but mostly chick flicks and new stuff. You want to quote How to Lost a Guy in 10 days? Be my guest, I bet I’ll beat you to the next line, but if recite dialogue from Scarface, I’m at a loss, or should I say, I was at a loss when Alex did in fact quote Scarface. Other times we’d be flipping through the movie channels on cable and he’d ask me, “Have you seen this, have you seen that” and most of my answers were, “No.” Which would then follow with a, “You’ve never seen (fill in the movie title here)? Are you kidding me? Babe, it’s a classic. How have you never seen it?” I would usually say something smart aleck like, “Babe, I’m not as old as you, this movie was WAY before my time!” LOL, some of the movies were before his time as well, but he of course, had still seen them all. So all this lead to our new thing, watching classic movies together. We started out with Scarface which led to others like the entire Star Wars collection, Indiana Jones movies, Casino, Cleopatra, and the list goes on. To my surprise, I really liked these movies, especially Star Wars. Now I understand what all the hype is about. This type of movie typically doesn’t interest me, but I really enjoyed all 6 movies. Alex is obsessed with Darth Vador (see, told you I would mention good ‘ol Darth again) and his face would seriously light up when his character came on screen. He thinks he is one of the greatest villains of all time and “an all around bad ass.” You know how they say every couple should have a hobby or something they really enjoy doing together? Well, we found our thing, classic movie watching! Needless to say, I’m super thankful to have met such an amazing man and am grateful for the past 7 months!

Last weekend Alex and I celebrated Valentine’s Day on the Sunday before, February 13. I started the day off by going to the gym and then got a much needed manicure and pedicure. Then I headed to the hair salon to get my hair cut and styled. I love getting my hair cut in NYC because a blow out and style is included in the price of the cut. A blow out for those of you who don’t know is when they take a special brush and blow dryer and blow-dry your hair nice and straight. I love when the stylist does this because it only takes about 30 minutes to get my crazy curls from super curly to sleek and straight. I told my stylist I had a Val date that night so she did something a little extra and barrel-curled my straight locks, the outcome was awesome!

It is so rare for my hair to be straight, but when it is, I love it!

Alex picked me up about 5:00pm and was pleasantly surprised to see my new do. He said I looked beautiful and gave me red roses (smart man, lol! ;-) We headed to Benihana, a Japanese Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan, for our dinner reservation at 5:30pm. Alex had been before and said it was delicious and he was right, it was great. We followed dinner with some ice cream for dessert and then headed to the Empire State Building. Being a New Yorker, Alex had been to the ESB twice before, but it was my first time so I was more than excited to experience one of the world’s most iconic buildings. Considering it was about 9:00pm on a Sunday night and a little windy outside, there wasn’t a line at all. We walked right in and were sent straight to the elevators. When we got to the observation deck and walked out the door, I was breath-taken (I don’t think this is a real word, but you know what I mean). Partly because the wind was twice as intense that high up in the air, but mostly because it was amazing! Everyone knows that the New York City lights are incredible, but seeing them from this point of view was unbelievable. I could see all 5 boroughs, all the famous bridges, Times Square, the Chrysler Building and just about everything else there is to see in this city. It only took me 4 visits and 1 year as a permanent resident of New York to visit the Empire State Building and I’m so glad that when I finally did, it was with Alex. It was an amazing experience and something I will never forget!

Our chef made a rice heart for Valentine's Day

Alex and I at Benihana

Empire State Building entrance

Alex and I riding the elevator up, up and higher up!

Amazing view of the city

New York City baby!

Alex and me on top of the ESB! :-)

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day last week and a good President’s Day this week. Sorry for those of you who don’t get the day off, I’ll be thinking about you when I’m sleeping in and enjoying my Monday at home! ;-)