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Thanks!
Emily

Another Berman Girl

Sweet baby Maya was born into this world on July 30, 2009. After visiting her in Tulsa this past weekend at only two weeks old, I am convinced that the Berman girls are the sweetest girls in the world. I couldn't feel more lucky to be the auntie of two amazing babies who light up any room they are in.

Although the trip was short, I got some great one-on-one bonding time with Miss Maya. She is such a good baby and boy does she love to sleep! I actually got about eight hours each night, which was totally unexpected, or actually the opposite of what I expected to experience! Ben and Nadja figured out a great schedule for her that doesn't always go as planned but it's pretty good for only two weeks in!

So far this is what I have observed about Maya...she is going to have the deepest, most beautiful blue eyes. She has THE cutest sneeze I have ever heard. She is working on focusing her vision, although she hasn't quite mastered it yet. She can sometimes hold her head up. She has many amazing reflexes you just don't expect to see in a two-week old and she LOVES LOVES LOVES to snuggle. She likes to position herself into what we call the "tree frog" position and her head nestles right into your neck. She'll wake up every so often and make an adorable sighing noise, nestle her head a little more into your neck and then fall soundly back to sleep. When she is awake, she is very quiet and just finds things to look at and stares. She's a good eater and you definitely know when she's hungry by the type of cry or by her frantically searching for something to put her mouth around. She has a very sweet demeanor, just like her cousin Sasha. And last but not least, she has brought so much joy already to her new parents. I don't think I've ever seen my brother so happy and it makes me so happy to see the amazing daddy that I always knew he would be.

Of course, I enjoyed catching up with Ben & Nadja too. It had been about two years since the last time I visited them in Tulsa. We talked a whole lot, watched a lot of movies and enjoyed some good food (I cooked for them Saturday night). They seem to really know what they are doing with Maya. It's like its the most natural thing in the world to them, which is very refreshing to see.

Congratulations Ben and Nadja on a beautiful and lovely baby girl. I can't wait to see you all again. Until then, give Maya plenty of kisses from her Auntie Em!

Update on wedding details

Hello everyone!!! I know you have been waiting patiently to find out when and where our wedding is. I think a lot of you have already heard by word-of-mouth, but in case you haven't....

Wedding Day: May 1, 2010 (that's right, exactly one year from the date he proposed!)

Ceremony location: Beth Israel synagogue

Reception location: Omni Houston Hotel

We are currently working on our web site, which should debut very soon. We are also planning on sending out save-the-date cards within the next few months. Everything you will need to know will be on our web site.

We do want to warn everyone well in advance to begin looking into flights as soon as possible because there is a worldwide oil and gas conference in Houston the week of our wedding and there will be several airlines escalating their prices as it gets closer to the date in order to make more money on the thousands of people that come in for the conference.

For those of you who don't want to/would rather not pay for a guest room at the Omni hotel, we will be providing a couple other hotels in the same area that are a little more cost-effective. We promise to provide those options very soon as well.

Oren and I are already in the full works of planning and we're getting really excited. The date and location were the biggest accomplishments and we feel great about those decisions.

We hope this finds you all very well and stay tuned for the launch of our new web site!

An Engagement Story

Once upon a time, there was a tall, dark and handsome young man named Oren. Oren, being the hopeless romantic that he is, decided to take his lady on a vacation and ask her to marry him at a beautiful winery in Napa Valley, California on their one-year anniversary.

After arriving at the first winery, which was the famous Robert Mondavi winery, it had suddenly begun raining. Fortunately, the rain only added to the romantic feel as it lightly fell upon the vineyard and flowers and trees in the distance. There were beautiful mountains in the background with mystical clouds hovering over them. The setting was as if it was taken out of a storybook.

As Oren and his lady walked along under the covered portion of the open area, Emily pointed out a beautiful rose garden. The couple walked over there and stood staring at the pretty scenery. As they stood there, Oren was building up the guts to say some important things. He finally began and it went a little something like this:

"Well, it's been a year since I first asked you to be my girlfriend. And I knew on that day that this was the start of something really special. Emily, I love you. I am so in love with you. There comes a time in each person's life when they have to decide who they want to spend the rest of their life with. I have made that decision and want to spend the rest of my life with you. [Oren gets down on one knee and pulls a ring box out of his pocket and opens it]. Emily, will you marry me?"

[Emily shaking and having an out-of-body experience looks at Oren and the ring and back at Oren smiling] "Of course I will! It would be an honor." [Emily bends over to hug Oren and he gets back up holding on to her. They stand and hug for a long time and after a minute or so they both start crying. They tell each other how happy they make each other and how excited they are to be the other's life-long partner. After several kisses and hugs, some photos are taken and the cell phones come out. They take turns calling parents, siblings and best friends for the next hour or so.

The rain doesn't let up once, yet the newly engaged couple begin their wine tasting journey. They only get to go to three wineries before closing time, but at most places, the employees found out about the engagement and gave the couple an extra free souvenir glass with extra wine or champagne to express their congratulations.

Later, the lovebirds went to a lovely french bistro in downtown Napa Valley called Angele. They were led to a more private, quiet room where they were given yet again another two glasses of champagne to celebrate the occasion. Oren ate the steak and Emily had the halibut. It was rich and delicious. They were both pretty exhausted from such an emotional day so they returned to their lovely Marriott hotel and day spa in Napa and retired.

The next morning they awoke and ventured over to the day spa for a one-hour couples massage. The spa was so relaxing and peaceful with steam rooms and jacuzzis and other fun amenities. After a blissful experience, they returned to their room and ordered room service breakfast. It was very tasty. They soon departed and made their way to Sausalito where they were to spend the rest of their vacation with Emily's brother and family who also helped make the occasion super special and enjoyable.

THE END

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We are so very excited in this time in our lives and have many people to thank for being instrumental in helping with the proposal, the ring, and accommodations. This was an unforgettable and beautiful experience that we will forever treasure. We promise to inform everyone of a date as soon as we get it finalized. Until then, we are trying to enjoy a few weeks in engagement bliss before all the planning gets under way. There will also be an official web site for the wedding, where all of the pertinent information and photos will be provided. We love you all and can't wait to share such a wonderful experience with you.

Oren's birthday surprise

So...many people have asked me the details of Oren's birthday surprise and I ended up just summarizing so I thought I would go into detail here, along with some fun photos.

He turned 27 on March 15, but we celebrated the night before on the 14th. Oren once told me that he had never been in a limo (other than when he was 3, and it doesn't count because he can't remember it). I stored that little fact in the back of my brain knowing I would do something to change that one day. :)

So, I rented an 8-passenger limo (it ended up being a Dodge Magnum limo, which isn't quite what I was told I would get but it was still nice) and invited his sister and 6 good friends to come along for the ride. I had everyone meet at his apartment complex but stay outside in their cars until the limo arrived. Then, they all hopped in there to wait for us. I blind-folded Oren and slowly led him down the stairs. He kept saying he heard an engine and I kept saying "well, it is a parking lot!" So finally I took his blind fold off and he got to see his long-awaited surprise. He was very shocked and thanked me immediately. Then we had the driver take this picture:



He saw heads inside so he knew it wasn't just us. As soon as he opened the door they all yelled, "Surprise!" Our first (and only) stop was at the wonderful and delicious Melting Pot fondue restaurant. Oren had also been wanting to try that for almost as long as I have known him. I kept telling him it was much more fun to go with a big group so that we should wait until we can arrange that. This was the perfect occasion to go!



The only downside to the awesome meal, was the amount of time it took. I believe we were there for nearly three hours! We only had the limo for 5 and had spent a little while in there before dinner so time was whittling away. The original plan was to go to Midtown and do a little bit of bar hopping, but with an hour and change to go with the limo, we all decided to stay inside the fun vehicle and party it up in there. We shared a bottle of champagne and another bottle of wine (Yaniv was the professional limo wine pourer), listened and danced to music and had a really good time.







After our time was up in the limo, everyone went back to Oren's apartment and played Guitar Hero for another hour or so. Oren was very happy with the evening and said it was his most memorable birthday yet! So I did good. :)

please let me win a trip to Hawaii

Dear Ellen DeGeneres,
I know you are going to get tens of thousands, if not millions, of submissions from fans trying to win that glorious trip to Hawaii. But if you ever got to know me, which oh my God that would be so great if you did because I think we could be best friends, then you would know just how much I am aching to go! Here is my very short story you requested of why I deserve to go to Hawaii:

To be surrounded by beauty. That is all I wanted after my world turned upside down one day almost exactly two years ago. I came home to my boyfriend of three years to find him sitting on the bed and telling me our relationship was over. The man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with completely broke my heart and left me there to pick up the pieces. After quitting my job and moving back home to live with my parents (and after lots of crying) I knew I wanted to travel. I had always wanted to go to Hawaii. It was just so beautiful in every TV show and movie that I ever saw. My mom reminded me that I was once there...in her womb. She was about six months pregnant with me and my twin brother when she went on vacation with my dad. I remember asking her when I was little, "Mom, why didn't you make a window in your belly so I could have at least looked out at the beautiful scenery?" She would just grin and tell me I would get back there one day. After buying the Fodor's guide to Hawaii and lots of research, I decided that I simply could not afford to go. Also, I was told by many people that it's not really a place to go as a single, depressed girl. It would hurt to see all the happy honeymooners there. So I decided to do a six-month work/study program in Spain instead. I had the time of my life there, but I have never let go of my desire to go to Hawaii. Now with an awesome new man in tow, I think it's about time I see that beautiful state. Without any windows.

*The deadline for submission was today and the winner will be chosen next week.

Writer's block

I'm having trouble following up the Hanna Montanashevitz post. Nothing is nearly as captivating that I can currently think of at the top of my head. In case you don't know, I rarely have this problem...

funny

So last night Oren needed me to open a new tissue box and I told him to get one from under my bathroom sink. He picks one up and says, "Um, Emily...did you know you purchased this box with Hanna Montana on it?" Well. I gasped in horror. Not a big fan of Hanna Montana/Miley Cirus. I think she has slim to no talent and is just plain out annoying. For no particular reason, I have a very strong aversion to her.

So, Oren and I sat there brainstorming for about three minutes as to what we should do about this dilemma. Yes it's a dilemma for me OK???

After covering several options, I got my Sharpie permanent marker out and gave Oren full rights to use whatever inspiration came to him to do with the pen and tissue box. With about 10 minutes of cracking up to the point of tears and a few suggestions on my end...here is the result.



This photo is not meant in any way to offend any sector of the Jewish population. We were just being silly and trying to make Hanna Montana look better. If anything, it's a compliment.

Venting

The past few working days have been unbelievably annoying and so I felt the need to vent a little bit. Basically, for the first time in 17 years (according to my managing editor) the entire Houston office experienced a full-on computer virus outbreak. I walked into work on Tuesday morning and was told not to plug in my computer (I use a laptop that I insert into a loading dock). I sat around for a complete 3 hours, doing absolutely nothing as I watched the IT people run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Once it hit 11 a.m. and I realized there was no way we were going to make deadline unless we started writing pronto, I told my manager we better just go home and try to work remotely. I don't know why I honestly thought the IT department would figure things out and fix things quickly. That would be too easy.

We are lucky because most of the programs we use to do our research are web-based. Therefore, we were still able to use those sites at home to get the information we needed. However, we were unable to use the program where we actually write and publish our articles. We also couldn't access the shared drive that we use to post maps so Denver (our headquarters) could get them and format them into our stories. I can't express enough how frustrating it was to find as many loopholes as possible to get something out. We ended up writing our stories in Word and emailing them along with the attachments of maps to Denver and left it to them to do double the work to put it into a normal publishing form. Of course each of us only got two stories written when we usually each write a minimum of four.

The next day, after receiving a voice-messaging system alert at 5:55 a.m. announcing that everything had been solved and we can return to work, I walked in and my editor told me once again not to plug in my computer. Apparently everyone who had, ended up still getting the virus. And so after one hour of waiting on IT to say something, I walked back out and went home to work. This time I was able to access the network. Everything was so freaking slow though and IT was threatening shutting the network down again, so I had to work as fast as humanly possible (with the slowest remote programs in the world) to get my stories out. Three stories took the entire day, but the network never went down on me. After they were published, I was exhausted.

Today I walked in and no one was saying anything. I wasn't sure how to interpret that. I hadn't been told much the past few days so it wasn't necessarily an "all systems go" kind of thing. I ended up deciding to take my chances and plug my computer in. So far so good. swaeho[gtno[inmg. Just kidding.

The other writer in my department (who has a brand new computer) seems to have gotten infected and is dealing with the IT department to get things straightened out. He found out that half of our office still has the virus. What the heck? Why can't they solve this?

I think I have two main problems with this whole debacle. No. 1: The IT department has had the poorest communication in the universe when it came to instructing employees what to do and what not to do. It was my decision both days this week to work from home because I didn't want to risk getting infected. Had I not gone with my instincts, my computer was very likely to have gotten infected. I would have appreciated much more than a little flier that was posted on one door outside the elevators stating there was a problem and IT was working to resolve the issue. I have no idea how many IT employees there are here but I know there are enough to at least make some rounds explaining what was happening and what we should be doing about it. I mean come on. This is a large corporation that depends on communication to function. Why was this element so lacking in one of the largest crises our office has ever faced.

No. 2: Why did we even have this problem to begin with? Our world today basically runs off of technology. It would not function without it. The United States is touted for being so advanced in the technological world and the people here stand proud of how much more efficient we are because of technology. Why then, are things as fundamental as computer viruses even capable of infecting an entire corporate office? Why is this company shelling out thousands, if not millions, of dollars per year to fund the top technological experts who can't even prevent or for-see a computer virus from taking over an entire office? Maybe my expectations are too high. But come on. Aren't we past this in our technologically advanced world?

I'm still not out of the water with this virus. It's very possible my computer is getting attacked as I type. All I have received communication-wise is another flier mentioning that the issue is still not solved. Great. Thanks for the instructions.

Hot Yoga

Last night I had the pleasure of experiencing a completely unique form of exercise. Oren and I decided to finally go try out a yoga class we had been talking about doing for months. We walked into Bikram Yoga thinking it would be somewhat similar to other yoga classes we'd taken in the past. Boy were we wrong!

This was "hot yoga," where they basically heat up a room to 100 degrees more or less and then have you do the more physically intense forms of yoga poses (26 to be exact) for 90 minutes straight. I have never sweat so much in my life -- not even when I ran a half-marathon! I know now not to ever wear yoga pants in that class...the fewer the clothes, the better.

It was all very overwhelming and some of the positions seemed downright impossible. But others came to me easily as I have done them in the past. Of course it takes practice to build up to those difficult poses, but some of them I just didn't even get how they were doing it! Our instructor was great, very encouraging to the new guests and reinforcing the fact that if you got too tired it was OK to give yourself a break.

The last 15 minutes were the most grueling. I even got a bit of a headache as well as some nausea. But I kept going because the instructor was slowing down a little. When I walked out of the hot room at the end of the lesson, my body felt amazing. I had worked it out literally from head to toe and it felt so relaxed and free-flowing. Not to mention the overall euphoric state I was in. I knew right then I was a little hooked.

I made the commitment to sign up for a month, consisting of 10 classes. It will be quite a challenge but I am so curious to see the kind of results I am thinking I might see since just one class made this much of an impact on me.

Today, I'm pretty sore. But it's a good kind of sore and I am going back this afternoon since that is usually the best cure for soreness. Stay tuned on this new element in my life...

25 random things about me

So, in keeping with my friend Elizabeth's blog idea, I decided to post a Facebook concept to my blog so that all my readers can learn a little bit more about me. The challenge was to list 25 facts, opinions, life goals about yourself. It is actually pretty difficult to come up with on the spot. But I'm long-winded, and therefore I enjoyed this exercise. So here you go people. A little more about me:


1. I am one who needs lots of time when it comes to getting ready, especially in the mornings. If someone tries to rush me I get really pissed off and it can potentially ruin my mood for the rest of the day.

2. I have three brothers, one is my twin, and I love them all in so many different ways. Oddly though, they were never those intimidating, over-protective types who scared boys away from trying to date me. I'm OK with that. I'm happier knowing they allowed me to learn my own lessons.

3. I have a cat who thinks she is a human being. She is the neediest thing I have ever seen...always wanting to make some kind of bodily contact with me. She even reaches up and cups her paw on my face and looks lovingly into my eyes. I know it sounds unreal, but I promise you it is.

4. After the brutal ending of my last relationship, I picked up and moved to Bilbao, Spain for six months to rediscover myself and remember what it was to be on my own and comfortable with that. I took intense Spanish courses and taught conversational English. That period of my life will always hold a special place in my heart.

5. I have one niece who is about to turn 1 year old and I recently found out I will be an auntie for the second time because my middle brother, Ben, and his wife are pregnant.

6. I am addicted to coffee. It's not even my favorite thing to drink. I began drinking it in high school in order to stay up late to cram for my very challenging Advanced Placement courses which was almost impossible to do after an entire afternoon of intense cheerleading practices.

7. Yes, I was a cheerleader in high school. We competed on an annual basis and won the NCA National Championships in 1998 in Dallas against 40 other small co-ed squads.

8. I am now living in Houston, a place I never thought I would end up after leaving for college in the year 2000. Surprisingly, it suits me very well and I am loving re-discovering the city and being close to my parents.

9. This past summer, I gave in and bought a Blackberry because I hated my last phone. It is seriously one of the neatest devices I've ever seen. And I love the new ease of texting with a full keyboard.

10. Although my boyfriend, Oren, tried very hard to find a good singing voice in me, it's just not there. I am not tone deaf, but I definitely need some form of training.

11. No matter how hard I try, I cannot whistle. And no matter how many different ways you teach me, not so much as a pathetic little noise comes out. This drives Oren crazy and it is one of his life goals to get me to whistle.

12. My two best friends currently live very far away from me and it has been hard not having them closer. They are my sisters and I love them and I am comforted to know that in the future we will have the ability to see each other much more.

13. In 2007, I trained for and ran a half-marathon by myself. It was one of the most strenuous things I've ever done and I couldn't feel my body from the butt down for about 3 days afterward, but it was one of the most rewarding personal accomplishments of my life.

14. I am technically 4' 10 3/4 " tall although I tend to tell people 5 feet (which is usually true with most of my shoes). I have always wished I was a little taller, mainly because weight is such a bigger battle for such a small person. But there are benefits to being petite as well.

15. My hair used to be naturally curly, but over the past 5 years or so, it has progressively converted to a wavy, trying to be straight sort of state. I'm not sure how I feel about this. But I've been told it will probably totally change again once I get pregnant.

16. My biggest passion is writing. I'm currently a writer for the editorial department of a petroleum information company, but my life dream would be to become an author of nonfiction novels. Words are one of my most favorite things in life.

17. Travel is another one of my passions. I am fascinated with other cultures, languages and different forms of beauty in exotic, far-away lands. Another one of my life goals is to always try to surround myself in beauty.

18. This past year has been one of the best years of my life. I have fallen in love with a person who is everything and so much more that I've ever wanted in another half. He is truly wonderful and I feel so lucky to have him in my life.

19. I love wine. I think it's a wonderful beverage full of different flavors and elements. Each time I drink it , I feel like it's an experience. I love how it is made and that it comes from nature.

20. I love food too. I'm very open-minded and like to try all sorts of different ethnic varieties. I think cooking is an art and am slowly working on mastering it and finding my cooking style. Top Chef is one of my favorite shows and it inspires me to continue working on my craft.

21. Photography used to be a big hobby of mine. I have published several photos in several publications back when I was a journalist. One of my photos even made it to a large billboard in Austin (although I never saw it) as I helped my friend in advertising with a breast cancer awareness campaign.

22. I have met some pretty famous people, including Julia Roberts and Kevin Spacey. Kevin is awesome. Yes we are on a first-name basis.

23. I'm really tired of always feeling poor. Although money is not the most important thing to me, I feel like I can never make enough to feel comfortable and/or to be saving for any big things. One day.

24. I want many children. At least four. I may change my mind but I'm pretty sure Oren is scared to death. Sorry babe.

25. I am strongly considering getting laser eye surgery. My doctor feels I am at the prime age and prescription level to do it. The expense of it is a little hard to stomach right now but I do believe in the long-run it will be well worth it.

i'm that age

As I look around me at the age of 26, I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed at life. Although I must have known this was the age most people decide to settle down and start families, I guess I never thought I would get here so fast. It was more of an imaginary place where when I would speak of my future I would pre-determine how my kids would be raised and what kind of home I would be in. But it always seemed so far away.

Now, every which way I look almost every single one of my friends is engaged, married and/or having children. I look at them and although I know they are grown adults, I still see them as the 10-year old girls I met and would ride bikes and go swimming with. Where has the time gone?

I can't express enough how neat it is to watch them transform into wives and mothers and continue on the beautiful life cycle. But it's all so surreal at the same time. I know when the time comes for me that I will be ready but until it happens, I kind of feel like I can't quite relate. I still have the younger lifestyle of going out and being social whenever I want to. I have downtime with only my boyfriend and I get to enjoy unlimited amounts of fun things to do. (Not that the other stuff isn't fun).

I like to tell people I'm not in "the club" yet, although my friends desperately want me to be. It's really funny. I always say, it will happen when it's supposed to happen and I'm not in any hurry. I'm still a little bit in denial that i'm that age. Everyone who knows me knows that I can't be pushed or rushed. That's just not how I work. My time will come and maybe I can make someone else feel the surreal emotions I'm currently feeling as I watch from the outside.

Life is so strange. But it's great too.

Childlike spirit

In one of my favorite chick-flicks, Under the Tuscan Sun, there is a line about how to find happiness: "Always keep your childlike spirit." I love it.

In childlike fashion, I decided to "play" yesterday. Oren wanted to go play shuffle board at Dave and Busters. We invited his sister along and made an evening out of it. Although Donna (his sister) and I lost the shuffle board game, we both rocked at some of the other things we played in the main game room.

I know it's old school, but Skee ball is one of the coolest games out there in my opinion. I don't know why, but I have always been good at it even if it's been years between playing. If it were up to me, we would have played that all night but since it had been who knows how many years since I've been to Dave and Busters, I thought it best to take a look around and see what other kinds of games we could play.

Although there were some cool new ones and other ones where you could definitely earn more tickets, Skee ball still comes in as No. 1 for me. Even though I stayed out way too late for a weeknight, I had a great time. There is something very refreshing about good old-fashioned playing. :)

Bright lights, cold city

It's funny how you take a vacation and when it's over, you feel like you need another one. Don't get me wrong, Oren and I had a wonderful time in New York City for the week we were there. But the problem is, there was so much planned and so many people to see that by the end of it we were exhausted! Of course it was all worth it and even if I was busy...it's not "work" so that makes it better. I say it was cold in the title but it was actually warm for that time of year in Manhattan. It progressively got colder during our stay and by the day of New Years Eve, it snowed and reached a chilling 12 degrees outside!

For those of you who don't know, Oren and I took a week-long vacation to New York City from Christmas day to New Years Day. One of my best friends lives there and I was definitely owing her a visit (She came all the way to Spain to see me last year). Oren also has several friends from school and his former band that now live there so he wanted to see them as well. I won't go through all the details of what we did, but I will mention the highlights. :)

Let's start with the day we arrived: Christmas. While I just assumed this was a traveling day and we wouldn't get much accomplished, we actually did a whole lot and it was one of the best Christmas' I can remember. After we checked into our hotel and ate an awesome dinner at a Zagat-rated Vietnamese place called Laan Nan, we made our way over to Rockefeller Center to see the huge Christmas tree lit up. It was truly gorgeous. I still don't understand how they find and transport trees that big but if I have learned anything about New York...anything is possible.

After trying to get through an almost impossible, claustrophobia-inducing crowd we went to Grand Central Station. This experience has made it to the top of my list of all-time favorites because I felt like it was out of a movie and totally unexpected. I had been before but Oren never had so we went inside and while standing in the main corridor, this beautiful laser light show started up. Complete with beautiful images on the walls and ceiling and Christmas music, it was a fantastic (and not to mention free) show! Oren and I had a little moment that made my heart melt so I will always remember that place and time fondly. :)

Later we went to Byrant Park where there is a huge ice-skating rink and tons of little shops (that were closed by that time) and a neat restaurant/bar in the middle. After vetoing the idea of skating due to the monstrous line, we decided to go have a drink at Celsius (the bar). This is kind of a scary picture but that was how red the lights were inside. We had fun!



The next big event was venturing to the observation deck of the Empire State building on Friday morning. We attempted to get up early to avoid a horrible line. Although it took 45 minutes to get to the 86th floor, it moved pretty quickly and didn't seem so bad. We went on a beautiful, clear day and were able to see the entire city. We spent about an hour on top taking pictures and looking through magnified binocular machines. Here is a photo of me looking out at the amazing view.



Out of all the awesome food we ate, my favorite by far was dinner at Spice Market. It is Asian fusion cuisine located in the Meatpacking District in a huge warehouse size space (which is rare for Manhattan). When you walk in, you feel like you walked into a very luxurious Indian palace. The food was mouth-watering and the service was excellent. Oren and I tried to make it last as long we could...before we knew it, two hours had passed. If you ever go to NYC, definitely make this a priority!

Some awesome shows we attended consisted of a matinee of Phantom of the Opera (awesome), Wicked (THE BEST SHOW I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!) and an improv comedy troupe at the Upright Citizens Brigade black box theater that included several famous comedians from SNL and 30 Rock. The cool part of the comedy show is you never know who is going to show up and we were lucky enough to get to see Amy Poehler and Rachel Dracht from SNL!! That was pretty cool and very entertaining. It was only 9 bucks too! And seriously people, go see Wicked in New York...it's an experience of a lifetime. Here is a photo of us at the Gershwin Theater in our orchestra seats (thank you Langworthys for the awesome hook-up!)



Museum visits included the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). While they were both nice experiences, none of the exhibits really wowed us this time around. There were some very interesting notions of art as well as entertaining ones. We didn't get to spend very much time in either museum due to always having somewhere to be next.

We got to see a lot of wonderful friends as well. Heartfelt thanks to Eva and Philip, who put us up for four nights in their adorable little apartment in Chelsea. We had a great time sharing amazing meals and seeing some great shows with you. Of course just being able to see you was a gift in itself. I got to see my dad's cousin and her family, which was special since I don't see them much. Thank you Langworthys for an amazing (and very amusing) dinner at Tartine in Greenwich Village. To my Jackie and Oren's Jackie, lovely to see you both! And it was very nice to meet Oren's other friends as well.

Last but not least...New Year's Eve. Well, due to my mother's life-long dream to be in Times Square on New Years Eve and watch the ball drop, I decided it was important for me to try to do it since the opportunity was there. The only thing was that it snowed for the majority of the day with gusting winds and a wind chill factor causing it to feel like 10 degrees outside! I also wanted to enjoy part of the evening with Eva and Philip since it was a special occasion and I never get to see them. So we all went to Chelsea Market (my favorite market) to buy fresh shrimp and live lobster to cook on the fire back at their apartment. The meal ended up being awesome (although a lot of work) and I was very glad I didn't venture to Times Square at sundown to sit and wait for hours in the cold like most tourists do.

Oren and I knew our potential of actually getting into Times Square was reduced significantly by not leaving Chelsea until 9:30 p.m. but we still wanted to try. So we walked (at a very brisk pace) all padded up in all the winter attire Eva and Philip could throw on us several miles to our destination. Unfortunately, the police kept blocking off the avenues we needed to turn down and we ended up with the late-comers at the last possible avenue you could turn down at the south end of Central Park. We still believed we could make it to the cross-section where you can make your way to Times Square, but not even a half-mile down the street they blocked it off. Initially I was very disappointed and on the verge of tears because I felt like if they let us through I could try with all my might to make my way to the ball. But, I had to accept that we were defeated by the law. There was no turning around either because the crowd behind us trapped us in. We had one of the many jumbo screens placed all around the Times Square vicinity right in front of us so we could still see Times Square and the ball. Although it wasn't the same, we were still out in the cold standing and waiting...doing the exact same thing about a million others were doing. Oren and I snuck in a couple Ozarka bottles half-way filled with Champagne. We slowly took some swigs of it to stay entertained and warm. Midnight came rather quickly and Oren and I shared a fabulous New Years Eve kiss...another experience at the top of my list! The one unique thing we had Times Square people didn't was the ability to watch the fireworks go off in Central Park. They were beautiful and it was nice to feel like waiting out there was worth while.



There is no better way I can think of to bring in the new year. Watching fireworks in New York City with the man of my dreams. (Sorry, I know it's corny but I really appreciate the happiness that has been brought to my life after some struggles) I hope everyone had their own wonderful celebration and I wish you and your families a very Happy New Year.