Tuesday, March 27, 2012

suburbia - week three


it's been just over a month upstate and we've gotten pretty cozy. 

there is definitely something (wonderful) to be said about living with your family. my mom loves pitching in for Nia's night time routine and is always a fresh burst of patience + energy with Nia when she gets home from work, which happens to be about when mine is worn thin from the day. 

I do get sad + miss the city A LOT. although i don't miss it as much as i thought i would (perhaps not having time to with a running + climbing toddler) with stuart away lately i still get cabin fever and crave my silly walks to starbucks, the thrift furniture store + CVS around the corner. i really appreciate my city girlfriends telling me there is not much going on even though the streets are bursting with spring fever, color, must-have clothes and new brunch spots. i know they must be lying.

my first overnight stay in the city this past weekend was pretty fabulous. it included a small handful of great girlfriends, wonderful catch ups over delicious cafe au laits, a sprinkling of good shopping that you just can't find anywhere else, sipping on overpriced fancy cocktails while taking in killer views, hot pink birthday celebrating, and a stellar + trendy breakfast spot where i didn't even notice i skipped out on a mimosa. it was the most refreshing weekend i have had in months. and the zarro's black + white cookies i always bring up for my family seemed a little more cool + novelty (and surely savored more) than usual. 

food. it is restaurant week here in the hudson valley this week so i think we are trying to go out somewhere friday. restaurant week up here, who knew?!  aside from restaurant week, i've been out a few times already and must admit the food is SO up to par. stuart + i were both dreading the food experience outside of the city. maybe it is anxiety about not being able to check it's write up on nymag? but we have been proved totally wrong. phew!

there has been really lovely weather here the past week. kinda scary how nice + warm, but we've been trying to take advantage. we've taken Nia out for plenty of bike rides, walks around the neighborhood and playing outside. but with nice weather come bugs. i'm sure i swallowed at least three when running the other night. gross-o-rama. 

this past week I offered to watch a "new" girlfriends two children for a few hours. the little boy is 4 and the little girl is 4 months. i loved that i could help out and Ben + Nia get along pretty well despite the age gap, but i also couldn't help seeing it as a test to see if i could actually handle three kiddos. the highlight of the afternoon: measuring, cooking and eating fruit + carrot stew (obvi with play food) with Ben while the girls slept. lowlight: infant Hannah crying with no quick remedy to soothe her and nia simultaneously tripping and falling on her face and therefore crying her super sad pain cry and having to hoist her up while holding the baby and actually not managing to calm either one of them down. i made sure to create an extra fancy dinner for my mom that night. and had 3 glasses of wine. 

and GREAT news....a sephora is opening in the ever-so-trashy poughkeepsie galleria. i can get back to my finding-the-perfect-mascara challenge. 

stay tuned, we may have more big news before next weeks update. 

LOVE

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

suburbia - week two of almost bliss


week two and settling in pretty fast. 

update from last week; we didn't go to the movies and decided to head to bed a smidge past 8:30. it was one of the smartest decisions we've made in the past year. 

for those of you who don't know the short of it, we've been house hunting for a while as we rapidly outgrew our queens apartment. to save money for a down payment on a house (and hopefully a little extra for my dream couch and dining table) we decided to move in with my mom. this obviously makes for a variety of highlights and challenges. here are said highlights and challenges of this week. 

we made serious progress on clearing our boxes + things out of the hallway and dinning room. we stuart brought them up to the attic. however, i still have an entire box full of belts + bags that have no home. stuart suggested hanging them up on the side of a wardrobe that is against the wall. on one hook. i wouldn't be able to see them that way. do you think he was joking? does he know i have like 25+ belts? 

this week we celebrated Stuart's birthday. a nice, calm, lovely day spent strolling + dreaming in millbrook. we were so inspired but the ambiance and scenery, our minds wandered and we planned plenty of potential future parties for our future house. i already know what i want to serve, the decor and what to wear to each. invitations to follow. 

shocked to discover that bootleg movies make their way all the way outside the 5 boroughs. and good quality. courtesy of moms (obvi near criminal) friend we watched "the help" and "girl with a dragon tattoo"

they sell ronnybrook ice cream at the sweet, little local grocery store. poughkeepsie just scored major brownie points. they don't carry the butter pecan flavor, mind you, but the coffee is still delicious. i'm no longer desperate to get to their little outpost in chelsea market. 

running here is very refreshing (although i must admit i'm almost waiting to be bored because the sport of people watching cannot be done simultaneously) i pass maybe a handful of people each run. none of which are under the age of 50. i pass a plethora of farms. and zero bodegas and subways stops. 

stuart baby-proofed all of the kitchen cabinets. apparently, not everyone knows how to open them once the "locks" are on (including myself) so rather than learn how to bi-pass them, our family has managed to create a unique, no-communication system that encourages us to leave items that belong in each cabinet on the counter top above and wait till an able person can put them away. in just three days this has provided extreme entertainment, frustration (as all the locks must be faulty) and laughter. 

ooh and you must follow nia updates. her news would easily double the length of this email. pretty please. she's pretty hilarious. http://beevans.tumblr.com/

and the biggest PRO of this week: the dishwasher. there are only about 3 of you on this email that have the luxury of one in your apartments. the rest of you should be jealous. it's amazing. 

lots of love
L+S+N

Friday, March 2, 2012

au revoir new york city


greetings from upstate!

we packed up and moved out of our sweet, little Astoria apartment last thursday and trekked (and trucked) up to poughkeepsie

we are just settling in and still unpacking. our boxes still dominate space in the hallway and dinning room. 

nia is loving all the space to roam around and explore. 

amidst the anxiety of leaving NYC we are pretty excited about all of the fun adventures within our reach here in suburbia. on a daily basis i find myself making a pro's + con's list of living outside the city. here are some of my picks over the past few days...


PROS
grocery shopping
with a shopping cart is amazingly simple + easy. and then to only have to go as far as your car. I felt almost lazy. when we got home to unload the groceries, it was raining, yet we didn't even care because we pulled into the garage and stayed dry. 

laundry
quarter-free. i mean, technically we've already saved over $20. letting the clothes sit in the washer or dryer for 2 minutes or 2 hours after they are done makes no difference. be still my heart, they will still be there whenever I get to them.

access to grass
playing outside with nia is no longer a mini-expedition. no more stroller. no more needing to bring in-case-of-emergency snack, bottle + roosevelt. no more diaper bag. nothing is needed to go out the back door to get to the grass and play in the yard. maybe just the camera + sunglasses. we can go outside as many times a day as she wants rather than making the special 30 minutes journey to the park. 

neighbors
they are what feels like a million miles away. should the residents along Clover Hill be rapping along with Biggie Smalls or fighting over take-out orders; we can't hear it. smoking pot; we can't smell it seeping through our walls. stumbling home at 4AM; we're blissfully unaware. ignoring their barking dog; we don't know it. it's been beyond blissfully quiet. 


CONS
going out for a drink
last night I went out for a drink with a few girlfriends. the bar was jam-packed with local college students. the bar was right smack in the middle of a strip mall, along side a subway sandwich shop and one of the 3 local strip clubs. week 2 challenge: determined to find a nice wine bar. (I should mention we were all pretty appalled with the atmosphere and left our beers in favor of 10PM milkshakes at the diner)

magazines
I have yet to find someone who is equally excited about the March issue of Vanity Fair. I mean, come on, it's the Hollywood issue! 

starbucks
although I don't go on a daily basis, the nearest one is an 8 minute drive away verse the former 2 blocks. 

heat
it's currently about 7 degrees colder upstate than in Astoria. and the heat isn't included in the mortgage. 



tonight S + I are going out. we're thinking the movies. I'm anticipating movie-going to be on the PROS list. 

Love from suburbia,
L