Pregnant Problems: Clothes Shopping

h&m $17.95

Being pregnant has caused all of my clothes not to fit me anymore, going from a size 2 to I don't even know what size because I REFUSE to figure it out. 

I went shopping the other night because I had a few maternity things from cousins and my husband had bought me some... but other then that I was banking on shirts that were sizes too big because that was the style.... but they weren't looking the style since my stomach was getting bigger.

So I went over to Express since I had a gift card, and definitely wanted to cry. Being that I have no clue what size I am, I had to pick like 15 different sizes and being once a 2 at Express and now getting up to like a 10 because I want it to be flow-ish and not tight, was very upsetting. Needless to say I left with two dresses and that was it.

I had to find something to make me feel better and there aren't any maternity stores around here, so I went to H&M in hopes that they had some flow-y shirts that would hide my bump or just minimize it and get some dresses I can wear on vacation, since none of my summer clothes will fit me!

I was in luck!! Thank god for the style of clothes these days and big long shirts are in style and is exactly what I needed. So I found a shirt I liked and (of course) bought it in a bunch of different colors.

h&m $17.95

All I have to say is thank god... because I was beginning to lose hope on this clothing situation! I have embraced only wearing leggings and boots and dresses and stockings, but once my shirts stop fitting, I really don't know what I am going to wear anymore!

Aghhhhhh....pregnancy problemsssssssss. 

Ah Italian Feasts and Football.....

M and I went to the Italian Feast in NYC this weekend. It was a lot of fun. He won me a stuffed piggy! haha
This week things have been pretty good... He is making the effort to hang out and be with me and all sorts of stuff.
I really dont know what happened last week or why he changed or where all that came from. A couple other different people I know are in relationships and almost something along the same lines of what happened with me and M happened to them too..... So I am wondering.. is it the beginning of football that makes men crazy?

Who the hell knows.... I am taking this day by day.

FYI.... I started taking graduate classes for education again. I even took out a loan. I am getting this done. I will become a teacher ASAP!

We went out and watched football this weekend in Hoboken, so that was different, we had a good time. Giants game? Not so wonderful though.


How was everyone's weekend?

Surreal Weekend.

i must have jinxed myself in my last post about having a better weekend then week because it completely took the turn for the worst.

so we went to a black and white party in the city on Friday night. it was a lot of fun, met a lot of M's friends i had never met. had some drinks.. everything was going good. Once the open bar ended, around 3 i started to feel in pain and wanted to leave but left bad because M was having a good time so we stayed longer.

A fight broke out at the end of the bar, M rushed over there to hold people back. Apparently some kid got punched in the face because he bumped into someone. They fight got broken up and they brought it outside. I made sure I found M and he was okay and I ran to the bathroom. As soon as I came out of the bathroom, I saw everyone running downstairs and I run over my girl and ask her where M is. She doesn't know so I panic and run downstairs.

As soon as I run down the stairs I see his friend TT and i asked him if he was okay and he shows me his arm without saying anything and it had slashes on it and was bleeding. I ask him where M is and I look around to find him. I see in front of me everyone screaming and this kid fell to the floor. Everyone's yelling someone got stabbed, stay with us, turn him to his side.. etc etc..  I walk over to them because the guys on his back and I can't see his face and I couldn't tell if it was someone I know. I realized it wasn't at the same time I am calling 911 because I don't know if anyone else has. Little did I know this kid E is dying in front of me.

I find everyone that I am looking for and realize they are all okay. Finally they take E away in the ambulance. Everything is surreal. I feel like I'm in a bad movie.

M is talking to his friends in the streets trying to calm them down. We leave to drive roommate back to my house and right as we are about to lie down they call M to go back down there since he had to give a statement. We also get the call saying the guy stabbed, E, was dead. We drive back down. By now its 6am. He's freaking out about getting trouble for being there.

We get to the precinct and he has to go inside. He is in there for 6 hours. I sit in the car staring at the cross walk and everyone walking by for 6 hours straight. Waiting for him. I was not leaving his side, not then.

Finally we get to leave and we go home at 1pm and sleep till around 8pm and go get some dinner and go to the movies to try to forget about the day.

Probably one of the craziest nights (in a bad way) in my life. I've never been at a crime scene, let alone be around someone who got stabbed, let alone be around someone who was dying.

Granted you hear about this shit happening all the time, but it never really hits home until its close to you. That knife was meant for one of our close friends and if E hadn't stepped in to break up the fight, it would have been him.

It really makes you think about how short life is again and what you are doing with your life and how precious it really is.

If you feel like reading the article...

Article


Violence is never the answer. Ever.

High Bar, NYC

So Thursday night was my companies cocktail party for our clients in the city. And it was awesome! We went to High Bar in New York City and it was a rooftop bar. They walked around with food and drinks so you could mingle and eat & drink at the same time!

It was really nice -- I am so glad I got to go.... see that makes me love my company again... but still hating my job. Ugh!

If you're ever in NYC... definitely check out this bar, it has a really nice view.

Financial Seminar in NYC for ING Direct

There is a two part financial seminar that will be held at the ING DIRECT New York City Café on March 10th and March 16th that will feature speakers Jay Sanders CPA/PFS, CFP and Michael Edelstein, founder of The New Temperament. The seminar will help people to find out how their temperament can affect many areas of your life, especially personal finances.

What: Why are some people good at saving — and other people find it difficult? The answer may be in your temperament. Understanding your temperament can give you a new perspective on life, as well as your finances. Join us for a two-part discussion of key financial principles, such as financial planning and saving for retirement, and how your temperament influences your financial behavior.

Part I (March 10th): Your Temperament, The Curve and Flow

How much money should you save? How can you use your awareness of temperament to make better money decisions? You’ll gain a new understanding of temperament and important aspects of money and finance.

Part II (March 16th): Further explorations of Money and Temperament

What about money and relationships? Are you and your partner at odds about spending and saving? How does your temperament impact other financial decisions, like investing and managing risk? You’ll expand your understanding of temperament and develop further insight around vital financial issues.

Discover your temperament at www.thenewtemperament.com in advance of the talk

When: Part 1 March 10th, 6:15pm Part 2 March 16th 6:15pm

Where: ING DIRECT Café

968 Third Avenue

New York, NY 10022

To RSVP to the event or see more information visit www.ingdirect.com/seminars

Twenty Ten!

Hope everyone had a great New Year's!

I am so hungover and its 7:45pm!

Thank god it's only Friday.

NYE in NYC is awesome. I am so glad that I was there.

One of the best New Year's I have ever had!

xox

Giveaway ! Giveaway!

So exciting :) I have had so many giveaways this month! Mucho awesomeness!

My friend Rhianne from For the Easily Distracted on Etsy has offered to giveaway any of the photos on her site!! Please got to her site and check it out, they are lovely!

So the winner can pick whichever print they want. Awesome!

My personal favorite is...
It reminds me of beaches and vacations, two of my favorite things! It makes me want to go into one of those little houses and see what is on the inside!

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Visit For the Easily Distracted Etsy Shop and tell me which one is your favorite.
3. Tweet and/or blog for another entry.
4. Tell me what you love about the holidays for another entry.

Winner will be chosen on Monday, December 28th!

And have a merry christmas :)
oh and PS. Tell your friends!


OH! And PPS......
CONGRATS to Nicole @ My Teacups in Peony for getting ENGAGED in NYC this past week :) :) Congrats!!!! Soooo excited for you!!!

NYC Bar, Racial Profiling

Levant East

107 Rivington Street, New York, NY

(212) 796-8040‎

hotelonrivington.com

Unfortunately this place decided that they wanted to racial profile my friends and be extremely rude to myself and my other friends because the inside of the bar was actually nice.

DO NOT EVER GO HERE.

My reviews of this club.....

Google Listing

Do not waste your money here.

The bouncers were EXTREMELY rude and racial profiling occurred at the door.

Even being with a huge group of people, with a promoter and all, they still wouldn't let two girls in for the fact that they don't want people like "them" in their club, although there were CLEARLY many unattractive men AND women who they had let in the club before hand...... to say the least they were being extremely racist and trying to cover it up with "beauty etiquette".

Dont waste your money. Oh and the club next store? They do the same exact thing.

This is my only way to vent my anger on this bar since I couldn't punch the bouncer in the face, so please, I am begging you, do NOT ever go to this bar.

That was the nice version since I was posting it on Google and did not want it to be deleted. Now, here is what really happened, my friends and I go there to meet up with a friend of a friends promoter guy. So we get there, have some drinks, are waiting for some more people to show up.

I was told to tell them to say the name Zach at the front door. A couple of our friends got in. I got a text saying that the two girls N & O couldn't get in and to come outside. So I go outside, I'm talking to the bouncers, and I tell them they're here for Zach and tell me too bad and to get Zach to come outside and let them in. I get pissed.

I go inside, talk to Zach, ask him to come outside, he goes to me "So what is the real reason they won't let them in?" And at this point, I was mad, now after he said that I was FUMING. I go to him, "well considering who is in this club right now, I would bet you it was because they are black but how the fuck would I know? All i know if they are standing outside and its freezing" And he's like... "how are you going to play the race card on me?" And I go..." Zach, most of my friends are black, im not being racist but your bouncers sure as fuck are"

Finally he comes outside with me and at this point I am SO incredibly angry. This asshole was not being compliant with me AT all and I reall couldn't understand why and that was frustrating the fuck out of me.

We get outside, he talks to the bouncers, I'm stalking with N & O and the bouncers are telling me I can't stand there and have to go outside the rope or inside the bar. I go walk over to Zach who looks like he can't tell which way is up or down and he tells me that they can't come inside because "they don't look good enough".

Now I am FURIOUS. I think there might have even been steam coming out of my ears I was that mad. I storm back inside to roomie, spanky & mich and tell them that we need to leave immediately because the bouncers are racist pricks and N&O can't come inside.

I go get my coat, I walk out the door, I push the bouncer a little and say to him "That was fucked up by the way in case you didn't know you asshole." And he goes "that is the club rules" I go "yeah well your club is fucked up and youre just as big of a piece of shit by working here"

As I am walking away, the bouncer said something, I barely heard him but I heard him enough to think he said something about "well your face isnt that nice either", enough to make me turn around and say "What did you just say?" and make me start walking back towards him. And I go "Say it again you piece of shit" And then his big BLACK bouncer tells me I have to leave right now and pushes me out of the roped area, as I'm telling him he's a hypocrite bad excuse for a black man to have my 2 black lady friends not allowed in the bar and what a shitty person he was. After I am pushed out, I start yelling lots of fuck you's and don't go to this fucking bar,, blah blah.

UGH. I was so mad, I couldn't even control myself, but if I do say so myself I didn't get up in his face and/or punch or slap him. So... I would say I did okay.

So, that is my story about Levant East. I hope no one ever goes there. I would never say that about any place unless they really deserved it.

It just MADE ME SICK that in New York City, the biggest diverse city in the world, we are racially profiling who walks through the door of the bars. I mean, lets be serious. They looked awesome. I can't even believe it. I couldn't even bring myself to tell N&O what the reason was because they looked beautiful and FUCK what some bald piece of shit rich snobby fuck says about them.

Then we ended up at our last resort bar, 420 Lounge

This place is always has great music and such a diverse crowd. So many memories in this bar. It may not be crowded and everyone is not dressed to impress, but its a relaxed and chill atmosphere and I would definitely recommend it.

Have you had an experience like this before?

!nd!v!duals Art Gallery, NYC, Dec 4th

This art gallery looks awesome!
I found it through Cute n Boot's blog.

Check out the !nd!v!duals website.

Opening reception-
FRI.DEC.04 5-8pm
Coleman Burke Gallery
638 West 28th Street, Ground Floor
(between 11th & 12th Avenues
New York, NY 10001

Look at some of their stuff.... so cool!

Hopefully I will be able to go!

Rainy Day Ramblings

So its pretty crappy out right now and about 3pm. I still have done barely anything productive today. I always feel so useless when I don't get anything accomplished on my day off! But the rain really puts a damper on my motivation. All i accomplished was cleaning my entire apartment and writing another post plus finding some classes I could take next semester. Seems like a lot but I put off dog walking today because of the rain and now I feel bad because they are closed tomorrow. UGH.

I found this picture, I want to give credit to the blog that created it, because it is awesome and they have awesome designs so go check it out! 

http://jen-at-chaos-lounge.blogspot.com/

I also just this great picture from National Geographic from India that expresses rainy days to the T.  Whoever took that picture was a great photographer.  Esp. the women there with the brooms, I don't know exactly what they think that will do, but I will not question, I am sure there is a reason for it!

As for tonight, I will be making a trip to the city to be with my girls. I cannot wait! I absolutely LOVE girls nights. Especially with my ladies, we make shit fun :)  We will be making an appearance at http://www.sheckys.com/newyorkcity/search/leela_lounge_1_3507.asp 

so i hope that the place is cool! 

I would like to continue with my random thoughts today, I am looking at classes for summer and fall semesters for graduate teaching classes. I am going for my masters in early education; a completely different field from I am in right now. Right now I work in advertising sales for a newspaper; which don't get me wrong, I love advertising and I would very much like to work for an ad agency or magazine; just right now is a really bad time and I would like something to fall back on just in case shit hits the fan.

My initial opinion of being a teacher for me was that I was giving in and trying to become a teacher. Sometimes I do feel that way, but I know it is not an easy job and I know I can't just be in it for the very long vacation schedules! But I have always wanted to help people and I am definitely not doing that with my job right now.  I want to give back and in the profession I am in, I am not giving back shit. And I DO NOT want to deal with money anymore. Dealing with money and people and people with money, is just shitty!

So I think of it like this: I am already in, I finished applying to the school for my masters, I have already taken one teacher class and passed, I already took on of the many teaching tests and passed and now I am into my second class. I didn't just waste all of that money for nothing! So I am just going to keep going. I really want to go to another country and teach there too, which that was my initial plan to do BEFORE I got my advertising job. I was going to go to Costa Rica for a month and teach English. But that never happened.  

I am trying to make this not take more than 3 years in grad school, although it is so expensive and it's hard for me to take more than one class a semester since I am paying for this. But I think I might try to do one summer class and two in the fall. I only need 15 classes to graduate. If my plan works like the above, I would have 5 classes done. I wish it wasn't so expensive. I could do it so much faster if it wasn't. 

I never saw myself as a teacher, but I love children and I figure I could maybe teach media arts or something along those lines in high school or middle school. 

I figure this. When I achieve my teaching degree and actually start teaching, I would have more time in the afternoon so I could go to the shelter and help there more. I will still have the weekends off, if I wanted to/needed more money in the summer, I could get a part time job at newspaper or website or somewhere like that and maybe they would hire me for the summer. Or i could focus more on my writing and publish articles or since the summer is long, I could go to another country and teach there for a month. Plus when I get a dog, I will be able to spend much more time with them! Basically what I am saying is that I have more time to have more options. Where as right now, I get two weeks a YEAR to go on vacation and fit everything into that period of time. 

Then I have to link in the long run as well, if I want to have children, which I do, shorter working days and more time off, is better than working 9-5, M-F 300 something days a year. Where as teaching is 7 or 8 - 2 or 3 M-F 180 something days a years not including when the students do testing and things like that. 

So. Is that a good way to look at that? Is this the right decision? I have been up in the air for so long about what I really want to do. Every week I change my mind. So I am hoping that since I am already doing this, I will just continue.  Does anyone know a good Ning social network for teachers to be that I can join?

I am open for opinions! Please feel free to comment and leave your ideas :) 

Enjoy the rain -- I think I should get ready now!

What did YOU do this weekend?

I have been recovering from my hangover all day and at the same time trying to update the layout of my blog. BAD COMBO!
I wish I knew that when I changed the layout style it would change all of my widgets that I had attached to my previous layout.. UGH what a pain in the ass. Then of course I find the 'right one' and I can't put my picture I want in the header. So incredibly annoying. If anyone has any pointers or any great places where I could find a better layout, please let me know. This is just a random thoughts posting now that I am getting into this one...lol ... there is too much I am thinking about to keep it to one though.

So this weekend we went to a bar called Galway Hookers in NYC for my belated birthday.

We reserved an area, paid $45/pp for 3 hour open bar. HOT. As soon as that bartender walked over to me, I got 2 Irish beers, and it continued along that way until the end of the night... plus the shots and other drinks people bought for me. I am hurting today. Not that bad, so I am proud of my alcoholic consumption not kicking my ass. So we had a good time for the most part, except when J get mad at L for "flirting" with my co-workers friend. Okay. Bad combo right there... any sort of my friends getting mad at something that involves a co-worker, is NO BUENO. This was basically at the end of the night and my co-worker and pals had to leave to make the train plus one of them got sick SO they ran out real quick so I dont know what exactly happened but they left, the girls had a meeting with L and told her he was just jealous and drunk, both true. We get out of the "girls meeting" in the bathroom and they hug and whatev. Then it was time to leave, so all the drunkees go home.

I didn't go to the shelter today to walk the dogs. I always feel bad about it when I don't go. I haven't been in 3 weeks either because of our trip. But I couldn't bring myself to go after drinking so much and getting home so late. Next week. I will start again. I haven't been to the gym since before we left either. Ugh! Such a waste, I need to get onto losing weight ASAP. The BF and I are planning to use my next furlough week ( yes, another unpaid week... totaling 4 weeks vaca for me this year) Peru i think is in the top running. Italy is up there too.
Our choices..

+Peru
+Italy
+Chile
...

So I have court tomorrow in the city with the US government for the BF's accident with the mail truck. Should be fun times....

I am very much loving the twenty something bloggers network. If you have a chance, join it and meet all the cool people that are on the network.

Ciao 4 now.

Shecky's Girls Night Out! NYC

I am a promoter for Shecky'y girls night out! Too bad some of you bought ur tix already! Butttt please sign up through this link if you have.

UNFORTUNATELY, FRI & SAT are sold out! But Thursday is just as good :) Happy Hour? Shopping? What! I am there!

Cure Your Recession Depression at Shecky's Girls Night Out                
Catch up with BFF's over cocktails, fashion steals, a little pampering, and fun experiences at the next Shecky's Girls Night Out – heading to New York Wed.-Sat., Mar. 11th-14th, 2009.

SAMPLE cool cocktails, beauty treats, games and more from Shecky's cool partners.      
SHOP hundreds of hot, one-of-a-kind items from indie designers and boutiques across the U.S.—all on sale!  
SCORE up to $100 in Freebies in Shecky’s Famous Goodie Bag, filled to the brim with the newest hair and skincare products, makeup, gift certificates, and more.

New York          
Date: Wed.-Sat., Mar. 11th-14th, 2009      
Time: 5pm-10pm    
Place: la.venue & Terminal Stores        
611 W. 28th St. (11th & 12th Aves.)      

TO PURCHASE TICKETS PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK:    

http://girlsnightout.sheckys.com/?rf=SP09_NYC_OSHEA