fall colors..

It always seems impossible to really capture the beauty of a sunset with a camera. I had to try. The pink brilliance of this days end was impossible to ignore. Sunsets in Florida are something to come out for. The kind of thing you make sure you make to the beach for every evening - if you live close enough. This was one to make it to the window for. Reminds you just how small the world really is.

Judy and Don

Stephen's aunt Judy and uncle Don were in NYC this weekend. It was Don's 50th birthday and the trip was a surprise that Judy put together for him. It's always nice to have family and friends visit but even nicer when that visit is from family you don't know so well. We had such a great time with them. I especially enjoyed getting to know both of them a little better. I hope they enjoyed their time here as much as we did and that Don had a happy birthday. Maybe next time they will bring the young'uns :)

Sabatage at the Skyline Party

The firm's favorite document production company throws a giant Halloween party every year.. this year I was around to attend it! I think this was my first real Halloween party - definately the first one here in NYC. Anyway it was loads of fun. My friend Abigail and my friend/boss Carol and I all went as devils. It was held in this church on Central Park West so you can just imagine how creepy it was in there with the big screen playing clips of horror films in synch with the likes of "Thriller", candles and red lighting.



Every year (or so I am told) the Skyline Boys choose and theme and dress up all together for the festivities. This year they decided to recreate the Beastie Boys "Sabatage" video. This is Tommy. He is one of our reps. How awesome is that costume?!?! He really looks like one of the detectives!!!





Check out the gold lashes... those were Abigail's idea. Gives it a nice touch right?



One of our partners came with his girlfriend. Pretty clever costumes. Abigail and I agreed that next year we are definately going to go all out and get real costumes. I wish I had gotten more pictures of the others. Some were really incredible! Rainbow-Bright and Strawberry Shortcake, the Clockwork Orange guy and .. North Korea!? That's right folks, some guy came dressed like the crazy dude from NK with an actual metal bomb strapped to his back. He looked more like Ghostbusters. I think his costume was a little too clever. Fun time.

New @ 193A

New is the word of the week in our household. We got a new chair last Thursday. Stephen found it in Newark at a rarely seen Goodwill Store. Quel find huh? Its lovely vintage velvet makes it the perfect throne for Oli and he has taken up residence without hesitation.









Stephen finally got a new haircut. You can't really see it in these family portraits but he was really growing an ugly mullet and we took care of that on Sunday. For those of you who know him well - you should be happy to see that his signature curls remained intact this time.. the last time I tried to give him a trim they fell under the blade.



This is my new coat. I won it on eBay. I am not a very good eBay-er and I would love to be able to say that I won this for little or no money, got a crazy deal, and am really thrilled with my purchase. Instead I must admit that I got a little too competitive, won with a higher bid than I ever meant to enter, and am still getting used to the idea of having actually let myself get that out of control. At any rate - I think its cute. Its a vintage (seems to be a theme here) eskimo coat from the 60s (supposedly). I am inclined to agree that it looks(and smells) authentic. It has one of those heavy metal zippers that are typical of the time period. What does puzzle me is the incredible condition it is in! Must have been in someone's closet in the bag it came in or something. Anyway - its mine now and I can't wait to wear it walking in the Slope - it't just that kind of coat.



Last but not least - Wicked. I am not usually one to paint my fingernails on a regular basis. However, after seeing two of the chickies I work with wearing this new addition to the Essie collection, I couldn't resist. Ever since Chanel came out with their black polish - which now is apparently next to impossible to get - I have wanted to try it out. But who can wear black into the office?? Enter Essie and their genius color. It looks black but it also looks red and in some light purple (not a fan of the purple) so its not punky but it looks sorta punky.

We had a dinner party on Friday night for our building and some other friends. Chili and beer to ring in the weekend. It turned out to be a kicking good time. We got to know alot of our new neighbors and visited with some old friends that we have not seen recently. I forgot to take px but it was pretty cozy here with 11 people snuggled into the living room.

We are developing a new Sunday habit too. We have been going to CaraCas in the East Village after church every Sunday. They have KILLER empanadas (sp?) and I crave them all week until I get my fix!

Dr. Keller's sermon on Sunday has really stuck with me. He was talking about God being a just God. About the true meaning of hell. His thought process is so complex and intellectual that I really enjoy being there and following his message. But when it comes to trying to actually verbalize exactly what he said afterward I run into some trouble. What I really took away from it though is the true meaning of hell. Imagine the worst thing about your personality - like being selfish - continuing on into infinity. The way you feel when you realize you are being selfish magnified a thousand times and never ending. He was saying that when you base your identity on anything other than Christ, the devistation you feel when that something goes wrong is extremely powerful. Like, if you base your identity on your looks, and something happens to take those looks away, the loss is much more devistating to you than it would be to anyone else. The same goes for someone who bases their identity on their relationship or their children or their wealth. Anyone would have a hard time if they went broke or had a major problem with their marriage - but if that is where your identity lies - you don't just have a hard time - you are devistated. So that is why it is so important to base your identity on Christ. Let Him be the center of your life. We all know He should be there anyway but sometimes it's hard to keep Him there. Dr. Keller was saying we feel those flames coming up and we try to blow them out. We have to keep blowing them out - it's a lifelong process. I am not coming close to how he explained any of this. I guess my mind is still working it through. The bottom line is that He needs to be the center of your world. He needs to be where you find yourself. Where you discover the true you. Anything else...is pure hell.

Ellen...bogan

My best friend, Ellen, came to visit this weekend from DC. Her hubby, David, is clerking in DC - and thats all I am going to say about that just to be on the safe side.
I met Ellen when we were about 6 or 7. I was very into my stuffed animals, and my pet rabbit (Cottontail) at the time and by the time she left my house she had convinced me that she did not have anything soft to cuddle up with at night. I, thinking this was a terrible way for another human being to exist, gave her a doll that my grandmother had made me. What she really wanted was this tiny white rabbit (a toy that I had gotten at the beach that summer) and she tried her hardest to get me to give it to her. I was a pretty selfish little kid, so instead of the white rabbit I agreed to let her take the doll, which, I might add, was most definately not my favorite. When my mother found out she was pretty upset since this was an heirloom toy and after a while I got the doll back. I am writing this because this is my first memory of Ellen. We have had a very long history together. We were in choire together, we did homeschooling stuff together with our brothers. We both rode horses. She HAD horses at her lovely farm in NC and I just rode schooling ponies at a barn accross town. Schooling ponies or not I still loved my barn and wore my Fox Run Farm sweat-shirt around her whenever I got the chance. I guess you could say we were always a little competetive with eachother. We even went to the same college. I got engaged first (it didn't take) she got married first and I followed in December of the same year. She was always smarter than I was, I always spent more time primping. We have been friends for alot of years. We have been through alot of really tough times, really tough.
There are few things that have remained constant in our relationship and I will list them here: An obecession with Anne of Green Gables (more specifically Gilbert Blythe), a love for our faith and the way we were raised to worship, and our love for eachother.
This weekend she came to see me and I can not even express what it meant to me. Ellen has been blessed with a tiny baby boy named Seth. He is still baking in her belly but I was so happy to able to see my friend before her next adventure arrives. Isn't she the cutest lady with a bump you have ever seen? I love the first picture there because we look the same way we looked when we were 11 and singing Amy Grant at the top of our lungs while mucking her barn. We were both dorky and neither of us was cool in the least but we really enjoyed being so uncool together. We never made eachother feel bad because they wanted to do something dorky like, dress up and go walking through the woods acting out Anne Shirley's adventures, because we were both up for it!
Ellen's friendship has been the longest of my life. More than that it has been the most important, the most meaningful. She is such an example to me. She has her faults, don't get me wrong here, but she knows what they are. More importantly she knows what mine are and she loves me just the same. Now before this all gets just too cheesy to bare, I will tell one silly story. When I was in grade school, Mom had a neighbor teach us German. I used to do my math lessons in German. To this day its the only thing I remember. Well, numbers and one word - elenbogan. It means elbow and I am sure I am spelling it wrong but thats the way it sounds. When John and I learned this word we imediately thought of Ellen. Little kids are too clever aren't they. If you had asked me 20 years ago who my best friend would be today I would never have guessed the skinny blonde in the baby blue glasses, but I am so glad you are. Anyway - here's to you, Ellen-bogan... to you and Seth. You are going to be one heck of a Mama. Love you!