Category Archives: Shopping

Mr. Kellerman Was Right

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Those of us who have watched Dirty Dancing upteen times know Kellerman’s Anthem. The iconic song that winds down the summer at the upitty resort. The lyrical phrase of importance here being: “old friends are the best”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the friends I’ve had the pleasure of gaining in recent years, but there really is something something special about old friends.

chellebelle416.wordpress.com

chellebelle416.wordpress.com

I spent the last few days catching up with one of my two long-time BFFs. I put work and running to the side to catch up and have some fun with Jill – the “trouble girls” were back together! We acquired this nickname in our early 20’s… How did we get this name? Pure, innocent trouble we called having fun!

Circa 2001

Circa 2001

So Jill came to this glorious place I now call home last Wednesday eve. This was not her first visit so it was nice that we didn’t have to do all the touristy stuff. We spent our time doing the usual things women do; and also laughing at our young stupidity, drinking some wine, some coffee, some beer, taking a road trip and exploring our now mature friendship in a way we hadn’t been able to for a few years. Although our lives are very different now, we are still the same when we are together.

Eve 1: A little wine at home and a night of chit chat.

Day 2: Brunch at Ze Cafe, a nice little French bistro. Shopping. Manis and pedis. Cheese tasting with Monica at the 92nd Street Y. That’s right, a cheese talk and tasting with the Cowboy Creamery ladies of Petaluma California. Wowza, loved this! (Next step in this cheese process – cheese making class!) Finished off the night with appys and sangria (best sangria ever) at Vero Wine Bar, and of course eavesdropping on a young dating couple. Oooops, did I say that out loud?

Day 3: I had to work so Jill did her own exploring and shopping. After work though we went to Bryant Park to visit the Winter Village holiday shoppes and have some appys at Celsius Lounge. Next made our way to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Night Bazaar (bizarre hahaha!). Jill was a little “uneasy” about this event since the neighborhood was graffiti-ridden, warehouse-y and baron. Once inside – hello hipster Brooklyn! Enjoyed the mini ice cream cones, chatting with locals about their products, and laughed at our glowing teeth in the mini golf area, where of course I had my picture taken with a cardboard Fabio and Jill became a cardboard hot dog! Tina and her friend joined us then we all made our way to a lovely biergarten in the neighborhood for a bier (more plaid everywhere!).

Bryant Park

Bryant Park

Day 4: Up and out the door to Penn Station to catch the LIRR to Ronkonkama. From there, car rental and road trip to the Hamptons! Beautiful fall foliage, deer prancing around, gorgeous summer homes on the beach. First stop in Westhampton for lunch. Second stop in Southhampton at the beach, deer again prancing between massive homes, deciding whose place housed the best foliage I suppose. Third stop in Montauk for the night. Stayed at the Montauk Marina & Yacht Club. Gorgeous sunset. Wanted to crash the wedding but it would have been too noticeable so we went for dinner and ended the night early with the TV… dang just couldn’t stay up to make it to the newlywed’s bonfire hahaha!

Southhampton Beach

Southhampton Beach

Montauk Marina and Yacht Club sunset

Montauk Marina and Yacht Club sunset

Day 5: Up early for room service and a beautiful sunrise! Checked out and off to the Montauk Lighthouse we went! Boulder walking, shell picking and carcass inspection… still not sure what that creature was… Next headed into East Hampton for a coffee and a stop at BookHampton, couldn’t resist our love for book shopping. Back on the road – lots of roadkill! Poor Bambi and family! Finally, off to Riverhead Tanger outlets to meet Lana for shopping and lunch. After all that, headed back to the city on the LIRR where we hung out for the eve before Jill had to retire early for her very early airport pick-up.

Montauk Lighthouse

Montauk Lighthouse

Public Beach at Montauk

Public Beach at Montauk

I wrapped up our days in a whirlwind, yes. Unfortuntely the short amount of detail in my paragraphs doesn’t give our time together justice at all but the point is, it was a great time of reconnection and new memory-making for us. Memories that we both will look back on very fondly, like many from the past.

P.S. Some of these memories will end up cycling back as jibberyjab posts too 🙂

P.S.S. And bucket list checking too.

Lost Soul

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I really become annoyed when my day is not as productive as I want it to be. By productive, I’m not even sure what I mean. Cleaning? Finishing a book? Doing errands?

Today I felt like a lost soul when I didn’t complete my unimportant list of to-do’s OR in the order that I wanted – yes I’m OCD like that. I’ll blame it on the rain. Milli Vanilli did.

My plan: run, shower, take the bus up to Target, stop at Lord & Taylor, J. Crew and Gap, Food Emporium and possibly Sports Authority then come home and get dinner ready for Brett, read (book is due tomorrow and need to finish) and maybe watch my new obsession, Orange is the New Black on Netflix. Sounds like an ADD day to me!

My day turned into: run, shower, headed out to bus but turned back for umbrella because maneuvering an umbrella and bags from Target would be a disaster.

Left again with my umbrella and walked in what felt like circles because I couldn’t decide if I should go to places where I would need to try on clothes with wet feet so went to Food Emporium then went home to drop that off. Had to wash off my dirt splattered legs too.

Then I left again after the rain was finished. Went to Gap – no luck, Lord & Taylor and picked up a nice little Michael Kors tote, J. Crew – no luck, made a quick stop at the NYPL – no luck, and totally forgot about going to Sports Authority.

Got home and ate food that shouldn’t have been eaten which I didn’t want to do today, read, and started listing my unneeded teacher books on Amazon to sell. As I’m doing this, I hear Brett’s key in the door. Oops.

By no means am I complaining about my day; after all, the heat wave is over, I have my health, and I did run and shower.

Hope your day was calm and productive!

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Hipster Austin

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This weekend I met my girlfriend Monica (famous for classtechtips.com – educators and parents please check it out) in Austin, Texas after her week with a successful group of Apple Distinguished Educators.

Never did I think that I would be in Texas and it actually wouldn’t feel like Texas.

I arrive Thursday evening, drop off my stuff at the hotel and head to the (in)famous 6th Street where live music resounds from the venues.  As soon as I turn the corner onto 6th, what else – but an Irish pub.  I sit at the bar, order a Harp and some chicken tenders (as recommended on Four Square) and wait for the music to start.  Before it does, two older gentlemen sit beside me. One from the Pacific Northwest, the other clearly from Texas. Waco, specifically.

At first I am somewhat dumbfounded by this man’s accent.  I thought if I had to listen to this accent all weekend I might need ear plugs – no offense, but it’s tough to bear when you are used to fast talkers without twang or whatever it was. After a drink they and some small talk, they were on their way and I was on mine.

Friday morning: Monica and I met in the lobby of our hotel and before long we were headed out for our Austin adventure.

Concierge(s) suggest some ideas for us – almost no accents.

Is it hot? Yes, we’re in Texas but not as hot as the heat wave I left behind in New York. Now we should be on our way to hearing some drawling and some Wranglers.

First stop: State Capitol building. Quite impressive.  It’s 14 feet taller than the Capitol in DC. The star in the center of the dome is 8 feet, cool.  Tour guide: Not a Texan. She says y’all only because it’s in her script, plus she says it like I try to. Definitely not a Texan.

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Next stop: Back to the hotel pool for some sun, swim and Pina Coladas (those were for me).  Any Texans with drawls and twang?  Not the servers, nor anyone I heard talking.

Night stops: Iron Cactus – no accents. The Blind Pig – awesome hillbilly bartender with an accent.

Saturday morning stops: We head out to the SoCo district (South Congress) for some market and boutique shopping.  Cool hipster-nearly Brooklyn vibe? Definitely. Do I feel like I’m in Texas, no! Where are the fried chicken and BBQ joints? Where are the cowboy hats and trucks? But there are a lot of what I like to call “toaster campers” which house the food trucks that do serve tacos, tacos, tacos!

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Saturday afternoon stops: As recommended by the virtually unaccented concierge, Monica and I head down to the west side of East 6th Street where the “grown-ups” hang out. We make our way along and stop at 2 great tap houses – again, no accents were had by the staff. What is up?

So what is my point? Well I have many but the main point is – turns out Austin is pretty hipster a little too “progressive” to the conservative state of Texas.  They are practically what Canadians think of Quebec. So in my opinion, very few stereotypical Texans live in Austin, in my weekend experience anyway hahaha!

Where are all the people with the drawls, the y’alls and golly gee’s?  I have no idea, I just know they are not in Austin!

Lip Gloss Lover

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Happy Friday!

For me Happy Friday began at 4:30 this afternoon since I had to attend a workshop on the new teacher evaluation system today! Booooo! It was waaaay to much information and way too many acronyms for a Friday in July. The only acronym on my mind was TGIF! …. So…. I want to talk about lip gloss instead.

This is where my plug for products begins.

I love lip gloss and chapstick. I don’t feel complete if I don’t have one or two on me at all times. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you like something or it fits right, you should buy it in every color. So I did. A couple of years ago I bought a set of Snap You’re Fab Lip Gloss by Smashbox at Sephora. This was a holiday set that I think cost $45. I like gloss with a wand and sponge brush so this fit that description, as did the array of colors that I can wear on my face.

Smashbox-Snap-Youre-Fab-3

I LOVE these glosses.  My favorite is “Radiant”, the second from the left.  It goes on my lips every time I leave home, unless I’m running, then that’s just a chapstick with sunblock!  I think I’ve use almost all the colors, even the red.  The nice thing about this red is that because it’s a gloss it’s not so drastic like a red lipstick. I love that look, but I cannot get away with it!

If you are looking for a good gloss that has a nice subtle color but does not gather that scummy layer inside your lip, try out the Smashbox glosses.

Honorable mention: NARS!  Another great gloss, fab colors, wand with sponge brush but, I found it would leak a little.  It’s a little more liquid in contrast to the Smashbox gloss. These are $26 each.

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What are your faves?