Lucky me

I got lovely fall weather and 3 more visitors, all in one weekend.
The weather is so perfectly crisp right now. I love actually needing warm blankets to sleep with and socks to keep toes warm at night. Walking back and forth from the train and breathing in chilled air. It's very nostalgic for me because last time the weather was like this I had just come to New York and everything, including the weather was so so interesting and exciting. It still is, but now it's much more like home rather than the wild new country it was last year.

Back to the company, here are the players:

Elizabeth Ellison Nelson
26 years old
Washington DC Resident
Current George Town Graduate Student
Took the bus and arrived with an air mattress in tow, so tough
She looks smart in those specs doesn't she?

Lauren Ann Nelson Foulger
25 years old
Newly wed (kind of)
Runner Extraordinare - and I mean extra extra extrordinare
Flew in from SLC on a red eye with a lay over in Denver. What a sport.

Sarah Jane Jones Morgan
25 years old
Loveland, Colorado resident
Skipped out on work and her husband to visit her friend (that's me) s (the others). Thanks yo

Me
25 as well
love the weather, the sites, but mostly the friends.


So sultry
If this has you intrigued and makes you want to visit please do. Good thing I live in such a popular location, I seem to be able to lure just about anyone. I'm thinking that I may need to hire someone to come visit me, but instead of checking out the sites I will force them to force me to clean my apartment, pay my bills, find my exterior hard drive, do laundry, go groceries shopping, do my home work, add more ram to my computer, and do office work for my mini business because these are the things that I forget exist when there are so many more interesting things going on! Who's in? Who wants to be my personal assistant for a week?? I can pay you with my love and affection.

You may have thought I couldn't come up with another excuse to post about puppies, but you were wrong! Last weekend Jean Marie (room mate, kind of) went home to Florida and came back Monday with a puppy!! His name is Zeus and he looks like a fluffy toy. Cute as a button, and I kind of don't know what to do with it because when I try and pet him or play with him I feel like I'm going to break him.
, but we did get some good training time in with him this weekend.

nie mowie po polsku

It was time to leave the dream house - more like time to leave the land lord from H E double you know what. ya, I said it.

You're going to wish you didn't ask what my place is like now because this turned into a massive picture album - Sorry
old place
Best part about moving was that it wasn't too far to go (or so we thought) so we tried to lug as much stuff down there on our own before getting a mover. This is Dusty and Jean Marie each with massive piles of stuff on wheels rolling down the street in the industrial district in Greenpoint (Brooklyn) - it was really classic.
There's no picture of it, but I have a bad as bid as a body bad full of stuff: clothes, shoes, pots and pans) balancing on my bike as I push it down the street. Such a pretty parade.
They tipped over my stuff in the middle of the street!! Come on guys, try and be careful.
New shack:
It's pretty lovely, I think I'm just spoiled for life from living in my warehouse apartments. I like the more industrial buildings better for some reason, but this one's pretty fine.
Best part is the windows, I haven't had windows in my bedroom since I moved here and I LOVE having a breeze so so much.
We have a sofa again! finally! Plus it's fancy - it even converts into a bed!!
Jean Marie's make shift room in the living room.
Jean Marie's "office". You can tell we're a bunch of really clean girls. Actually for all the crap I have gotten my whole life for being messy I'm the least messy one in the house!! I clean all of the time and am for sure the most organized. sad.
Caroline-a's room (she'd kill me if she knew these were on here) oops.
Caroline's creative corner

My fort bedroom - magically my desk fit under the loft bed one of my friends donated.
Yep, hauled that dresser with me on all my moves so far - it's heavy. We only had one moving guy so I was the one on the other side of this lug, the chest of drawers in the kitchen, both mattresses and Caroline's massive desk. I'm such a brute.
Studio
Studio storage

Sam Oakes

I met Sam in Laos what seems like was a way long time ago. Lauren and I met him and a buddy of his while we were traveling. He was such a genuine, quiet cool guy.

His story was that he was from England, he was a photographer, and that he was traveling to build up a portfolio and his dream was to get photos into National Geographic.

At the time it sounded like a far fetched dream, but a cool one.

Came across Sam again via email/face book and voila - he got his wishes!
I think he has some great images and he even got some into National Geographic. Rock on. Check him out if you have the time.

www.samoakes.com

Red Hook

Last week I dog sat for Carly (my rad boss) and Fritz (her rad boy/fiance) out in Red Hook. I lived their life for like 2 1/2 days and now I basically want to be them. I'll tell you why; They both run their own businesses out of their warehouse/apartment in a chill area between Carroll Gardens and Red Hook.{his business: art shipping and delivery. hers: interior design} They also have a car (I can admit it does make me jealous even though I have enjoyed not having one, it helps that it's a Mercedes SUV)

So here is the number one reason I loved living their life - Gus and Otto. This is Gus.

This is where I walked with the pups.

All weekend I walked the dogs in the morning, fed them, took them out to do their business - then did the same at night. I totally felt like a mom. I went into the city both days because I had other obligations too and I felt sooo guilty the whole time. I couldn't stop thinking about the dogs. All I wanted to do was get back to them to let them out of their crates and see if they had to go to the bathroom or they were hungry. I even left my friends birthday party early because I couldn't take it.

This is a cute little jewelry shop in Red Hook that I don't understand how it can survive because. It's so awesome, but in the middle of nowhere.

The pier in Red Hook.

Otto, the most beautiful German Shepard puppy in das world, he was not very photogenic, too busy.

So if you make it to Brooklyn you should check out Red Hook. I highly recommend it.

Not yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that, but the day before that Christy, Andrew, and I converged in NYC for a weekend of awesomeness (which I am still soar from). That's all I'm going to say. Not really though - you know I'm more long winded than that!

This excitement after a week home running mad to get Paige's wedding together. Helps explain the 8 hour nap I took after getting home from school yesterday at 4:30 p.m. A nap that was closely followed by peanut butter and honey and banana sandwich, which was followed by an episode of the Gilmore Girls (don't tell anyone, but yes I brought the 3rd season home with me from Paige's collection), which was followed by 9 more hours of sleep.

The three of us waiting for the subway. Some how is this the only pic I have of all three of us? Good thing we are looking so hot and energetic.

I'm so lucky to have friends that are willing to brave my apartment and the New York Streets for some wicked awesome riding, concerts (this will have to be another post in and of itself), movie watching, eating and more eating, and some seriously sweaty episodes out in the mugginess. Last weekend the average was 83 degrees!? Where's that beautiful fall time? Well, it's actually here now, just in time for everyone to leave unfortunately.

So as for the biking, because I was the navigator I felt like I should be the one to add up the mileage from our urban biking. I also feel like it would be the honest thing to do since while we were biking I tried to be discreet about where to go, or where we were, mainly because often I wasn't sure.
This is a map of 2 days of our longest rides. Saturday we rode to Randall's Island for a day of music. Then afterwards we rode into the city, got dinner, and hung out at Times Square for a bit. Sunday we left the house at 4 and then made up for it by riding to Central Park, hanging out, then heading down to DUMBO for the best pizza eva, then home the most direct way possible, not (ooooooops).

Note to watchers: Turn down your volumes if you are at work. The intensity of these moments are apparently louder than I would have anticipated.