We love you and miss you terribly

These past few days have been bittersweet.

On the upside, Brent and I got to spend a whole lot of unexpected, quality time with our families.

But that time came at a terrible downside. Brent's grandma, Ruth Beck, passed away on Wednesday. She was just a few days shy of her 89th birthday.

I don't remember my grandfathers. One died before I was born and the other passed away when I was 2 years old.

I was must closer to my grandmothers - one who passed away in 1997 and the other who died four years ago. But since I've been with Brent, I've always called his grandmother "grandma" because that's what she was to me. She was the closest thing I had to a grandmother and now she's gone too.

A million thoughts ran through my head when Brent's dad called me with the bad news. One was that she was going to miss our wedding - which she said she wanted to live to see even before Brent proposed. Even though we weren't related, I knew she thought of me as one of her own grandchildren - especially when I saw that she cut out a photo of me that was in The Blade newspaper announcing that I was a new staff member there, framed it, and put it on an end table near actual photos of her actual grandchildren.

Another thought was that Brent was going to be devastated. He was really close to his grandmother, and the fact that he had to find out the bad news while he was at work - and had to finish out the day before we left for home - just destroyed me.

A third was that I would never get to hear her laugh again. Or hear her talk about a topic that excited her so much - like the Cleveland Indians, Browns, or the Cavaliers - that her words jumbled together because she was talking so fast.

She's the one who introduced me to The Carousel dinner theatre - something I looked forward to often when Brent and I would visit her in Wadsworth, Ohio.

And of course I always looked forward to playing cards with her, which was her second favorite thing to do with company - after watching sports on TV, of course. No matter how late it was, she was always up for some O.H. ("Oh Hell") or the card game golf.

Because she lived in Wadsworth, which is about two hours away from Toledo, whenever we would visit her, we would inevitably spend a night or two in one of the three spare upstairs bedrooms in the house she's lived in for more than 60 years - which has plenty of memories on its own. When the house was full, Brent and I would squeeze onto the daybed in the green room and elbow each other all night trying to find more room. And it was much smaller when his oldest niece, Katelyn, who's 2, would cuddle in there with us.

When we were lucky, we got the blue room or, even better, the yellow room, which used to be his grandmothers before she decided it would be easier to sleep downstairs in a bedroom that she had built on the ground floor. On the plus side, that room came with a few dressers, a chair, and a queen-sized bed.

On the minus side, that room was involved in the famous bat incident of 2007 in which I had to run in and snatch Katelyn from her crib because of the bat that had gotten inside the room and figure out a way to get it out. For the record, spraying it with Pledge doesn't make it want to rush to fresh air. It just makes it more irritated and covered with Pledge, which made me, armed with a broom and an empty trash can, and Brent's dad, wielding the Pledge, figure out Plan B to get it out of the house (trap it in the trash can and let it go out the window).

So even though her funeral was just as painful as my own grandmothers' funerals because I just kept replaying all the memories in my head, I'm so glad that Brent and I were able to fly home to be there with his family. Her funeral was short, but beautiful with an amazing eulogy by Brent's cousin, Garet, who was also very close to her. She was buried next to her late husband with photos of her great-grandchildren (Brent's nieces), playing cards, and sports memorabilia.

Afterward, we laughed and told stories about her at a luncheon at one of her favorite restaurants in Wadsworth, The Galaxy.

The next few days were spent with Brent's family and mine, which was thoroughly enjoyable, even though they were punctuated with tears.

I'll miss you grandma.

I know it's expensive, but this time, I don't care!

I'm getting married in 82 days.

Holy crap.

Even though I DO have 82 days - which is nearly three months - I'm stressing out about how much I still have to get done and how impossible it is to get it all done from 600 miles away.

I'm not thinking about how I have had all the big stuff - the hall, the DJ, the dress - for awhile now. Instead, I'm stressing over the nitty gritty - the decorations at the hall, the actual songs that the DJ will play, and the accessories for the dress.

Brent I are going home for ONE more long weekend - or 3.5 days - before the actual wedding and there is just no way to squeeze everything in. I already have my bachelorette party, a friend's wedding, and a bridal shower planned for that weekend around my dress fitting, spray tan and trial hair and makeup appointments, and a several hours long meeting with our minister.

How am I supposed to meet the cake and flower ladies? Excuse me, flower lady, if it's not too much trouble, do you have time to meet with me around 3 a.m.?

And if that's not stressful enough, can you imagine how crazy it's going to be when Brent and I go home the Wednesday night before our June wedding? And that will be after driving 11 hours in a rental car with a dog who gets so nervous being in the car that she produces a steady stream of saliva, which oozes out of her mouth all over us, herself, the apholstery, etc. THE ENTIRE RIDE. Luckily, this time, she'll be drooling all over us, herself, and a rental car!

So with that in mind, along with my hair and makeup appointments the day of my wedding, I also booked a manicure, pedicure, eyebrow wax, and massage the day before. The only thing that's really necessary there is the brow wax because my bushy eyebrows can sometimes get out of control. But I only plan on getting married once, so when will I ever have an excuse to get a manicure AND a pedicure at the same time? So, I threw in the massage in there because I know I'm going to need it, though I don't know how I'll be able to relax worrying about everything from whether the cake will be delivered on time to the weather.

Even though I didn't ask for the total price tag for my two days of beauty treatments on purpose (I really don't want to know!), I'll probably have to work at my part-time coffee shop job for about a month to afford it all. And even though I will probably get in trouble once my fiance reads this because we're trying to save money to be able to live in this crazy-expensive city - I don't care. I'm getting my day of beauty, dammit!

Why it's a good idea to ALWAYS wear underwear

Today, I learned first-hand that this city is full of some crazy people.

Well, I really already knew that, but I came into close contact with one guy today. And it was both terribly sad and ridiculously hilarious at the same time.

After leashing up the dog to take her for a quick evening pee walk, I walked out of my building to see this guy leaning up against a white car right outside my building holding his coat in both hands out in front of him. He was eyeing me weirdly, so I kept an eye on him as Chloe and I quickly walked past him.

On our way back toward our building, a nice, clean-cut guy hurried up to me to ask whether I lived around there. I told him "no" because he was either going to ask me for directions (which I am not good with) or ask me to let him into my building, which I will not do regardless of how clean-cut he looked.

Then he pointed at the weird guy I saw leaning up against the car just moments before. Only now, the guy was lying on his back IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET rolling from side to side as if he had a terrible stomachache. The clean-cut guy, whose name I later learned was Peter, asked me if I lived nearby so I could call for help because he said he couldn't just leave the weird guy in the road to be hit by some crazy taxi driver.

So I told Peter that I'd take care of it and ran into my building, dragging Chloe along behind me. I really didn't want to leave Peter alone with the weird guy in case he did something crazy.

When I got to the third floor, I couldn't get our apartment door open for some reason, so I started pounding on the door and yelling to Brent that it was locked. But then I got the door open on my own, pulled the dog inside, rummaged through my purse for my cell phone, and ran out the door again after yelling, "I'll be right back" to Brent, who was in the bathroom.

By the time I got back outside, Peter was literally holding the weird guy up in a bear-hug because the guy was so drunk or high or both that he was practically dead-weight. The guy kept blubbering that he lived just down the block, so Peter and I briefly talked about walking him home before dismissing the idea when we realized that we wouldn't be WALKING him home as much as we'd be CARRYING him home.

After Peter got the guy's jacket and hat back on him, the guy teetered on his own feet for a second before Peter had to jump in and cushion his fall as the toppled over onto the curb. It was at that point that I announced that I was calling for help.

So I dialed 911 and after telling the first operator that I lived in Manhattan, I was transferred to the nearest dispatching center. I thought they'd send a police cruiser, but they said they'd be dispatching an ambulance. Meanwhile, they told us to keep talking to him, but be wary in case he tried to do something crazy.

So we propped him up against a pole and tried to talk to him, which was hard because what he was saying wasn't making much sense. It sounded something like "muhnumphschnump, no offense, no offense." All I made out was "no offense" which made me think he was inadvertently insulting us for some reason. Then he started telling us that he was a bad person, and we kept assuring him that he wasn't until the ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later.

Right at this time, Brent came out the front doors and glared at me while taking deep breaths. I'll explain that later.

Two paramedics got out of the ambulance and the woman warily looked at the guy and told him to stand up. We told her that he couldn't stand up. She ignored us, and Peter had to help the guy to his feet because the paramedics - though they were wearing gloves and it was their JOB - wouldn't touch him.

So Peter half carried and half dragged the guy to the back of the ambulance. On the way, the guy's pant legs got caught underneath his boots, his belt failed, and his pants fell all the way down to his ankles.

And he wasn't wearing any underwear.

Peter noticed the problem and tried to hike the guy's pants up while carrying him and ended up dropping the half-naked guy on his ass right on the street next to the ambulance.

Right about this time, the guy looked up at us and asked the relatively obvious question, "Why are my pants down?" Sigh.

Finally, the paramedics stepped in to help - how nice of them - and hiked up the guy's pants, and put him on a gurney so he could be taken to the hospital around the corner overnight.

After the ambulance left, Peter shook Brent's hand and told him that his fiancee was a very good, helpful person (go me!) and Brent and I headed back upstairs, where he began yelling at me for scaring the crap out of him.

Here's his version of the story (as he told it to me):

He was in his boxers in the bathroom when he heard me pounding on the door and yelling about how it was locked. Then Chloe ran into the bathroom with her leash still attached. So he came out of the bathroom to find me - which is not very hard in our one-bedroom apartment - and saw my purse wide open with my wallet and other things strewn about.

Naturally, he thought I was first robbed, then abducted and was being raped somewhere.

So he said he gingerly opened the door to peer out the hallway. When he didn't see me, he quickly got dressed and took the stairs down in case I was fighting someone dragging me from the building.

Before heading to the basement to see if I was there, he saw the ambulance's flashing lights and spotted me standing right next to it. His feeling of relief was apparently fleeting because he immediately glared at me and told me later I scared him to death. He apparently didn't hear the "I'll be right back" and assumed the worst.

This city will do that to ya!

Celebrity sighting - in person - not on TV

For some reason, I was given a four-day weekend off from my coffee shop job - from Friday to Monday. Not only was this fantastic, but because Friday was Good Friday, Brent had a three-day weekend off from work. That meant we had three full days of uninterrupted time together - something that is definitely scarce now that we live in the city!


So for the first time since I moved here, we went out for breakfast together. I suggested going to
Le Pain Quotidien near Central Park, which is where Sarah and I went during the infamous

egg-and-sweater-fuzz incident. I knew Brent would love it because all the food is not only delicious, but completely organic. Yum!


Afterward, I told Brent I wanted to make a quick stop at Strawberry, my favorite New York clothes store (because I can actually afford what's inside!), and Lee's Art Store, my favorite New York art store (because it's four floors of art-related paraphernalia and I've got wedding invitations to send out!).



He decided to ditch me in favor of basketball, and practically ran away while muttering something about missing the tip-off. As if he hasn't had the entire month to watch basketball. It's not called March Madness for nothing, honey!


But as it turned out, it was his loss. He can go ahead and watch basketball players on TV. On the walk home, I saw some of them in person. I happened to be passing by the Le Parker Meridien hotel on 57th Street when many VERY TALL men were coming out and boarding a big, black tour bus. I didn't recognize any of them at first, but judging by their size (they were H-U-G-E!) I knew they had to be basketball players.


Then I saw Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson and realized that I was looking at the Denver Nuggets. As if that wasn't hard enough for Brent to have missed out on, his favoritist basketball player is Allen Iverson. Ouch!


So as a consolation prize, I snapped a photo of A.I. for Brent, even though A.I. was sort of an asshole.


ALL the other players, including Carmelo Anthony, were stopping to sign autographs for the two kids and the few adults gathered around before boarding the bus.


But the second A.I. stepped out of the hotel, he started yelling, "It's too early! It's too early [to sign autographs]" and then blew past the fans and got on the bus. It was 12:30 p.m.


Though I can understand that it gets irritating to be asked for your autograph wherever you go, there were just TWO kids there. Come on, dude. Just whip out a pen to at least thrill the kids who probably idolize you. Jerk.

Dinner in good company

As I've mentioned many times before, I love it when friends call me to say that they'll be in town and ask if I can catch up at some point. Of course I can. I really have nothing else to do other than work an average of five hours a day. I live a tough life!

So I was excited when Ryan, a friend from college who I worked with at the student newspaper, said he was coming into the city for a job interview. And I was even more excited that he had some time to catch up for dinner.

After working an awful shift that started at 4:45 a.m. at the coffee shop, I needed a nap before walking in the pouring rain to meet up with Ryan at the library across the street from the Museum of Modern Art.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous to be meeting up with him. Though we were pretty good friends during college, and even worked together at The Blade newspaper back in Toledo, he moved to Columbus and we've had very little contact for several months. What were we going to talk about?

It turned out, however, that I didn't have to worry a bit. We're both engaged, so we talked a lot about weddings and our fiance(e)s and also chatted about New York, his potential new editing job, and how he was looking forward to hopefully moving to the city.

So dinner at the Irish pub flew by, and we were soon headed off to the train station so he could grab the bus back to Ohio.

Here's to wishing my friend good luck for a job he really wants and for a friend I could really use here!

I WILL NOT burn myself again... I WILL NOT burn myself again...

I have no idea what got into me today, but I was in a B-A-D mood.

I attribute some of it to the fact that I honestly don't think I could have burnt myself ONE more time today. The worst was when I handed a customer his coffee, which was about a sixteenth of an inch below the rim of the cup, and he handed it back to me and asked that I fill it up to the top.

Seriously.

So I tried to put more coffee into the cup, which was nearly impossible, and it of course spilled over the rim of the cup and settled on the skin between my thumb and index finger. Since I couldn't shake it off right away - I was still holding the cup of coffee - it sat there for about a second and seared the skin so badly I had to spray burn cream all over my hand and protect it in a rubber glove for the rest of the day. But it still hurt like hell.

I then burned a finger on my other hand while getting tea for another customer and washed dishes in too-hot water several different times.

Regardless of the reason I was in such a bad mood, it's been a long time since I've cried in the bathroom at work, but I did today. Everything just came to a head, I guess. My hands were throbbing, I missed my family, I hated my job that day, etc.

But then I got home and had a bit of time to wallow in self-pity before Brent came home. As much as I tried to resist, he made me smile, like always. Then I felt better. I don't know how he does it, but he does. That's why I'm marrying him. Aww!!

I'm the boss... and I LOVE IT!

I have finally completed my supervisor's training at the coffee shop where I work and was entrusted with the responsibility of closing the store by myself for the first time last night.

Well, I had two other people there with me, but they looked to me for direction. I'm still not used to other employees - who have been working at the store way longer than me - coming up to me and asking me what I want them to do.

It was a bit stressful knowing that I was the one responsible for all the money in the store - and making sure everything balanced out the way it was supposed to - and any issues that cropped up (thankfully there weren't any major ones tonight). It was also a bit nerve-wracking knowing that I was supposed to make sure that everyone did what they were supposed to do, even though I'm still learning about what they're supposed to do myself.

But everything went smoothly and I got plenty of kudos on my closing - meaning everything that was supposed to be done was done - this morning by the store manager.

And I've learned something about myself. I THRIVE on being the boss. Well, OK, I already knew that, but this experience was definitely a reinforcement.

Plus, my manager noticed and said she can't wait until I go to this mandatory training that I have to go through because she said I'd be really good at it.

So all I need to do now is figure out what I want to do long-term for my career, actually get a job in that field (easier said than done), and work my way up to being the boss.

Yep. That's all I have to do.

Yay! I have some friends (sort of)!

With a place as big and as densely populated as New York City, I figured it would be easy to make some new friends.

As I've discovered with Sarah, one of my best friends, it's way more fun to go places and do things with a friend. We had a blast at the comedy club, museum, and shopping when she came and visited a few weeks ago.

But it's not like you can go up to some random friendly-looking person on the street and ask them, "Will you be my friend?" Though I have yet to try that tactic, I have a feeling it may not work because it might come off as a bit desperate. And weird.

To make some new friends in a normal way, I figured I've got to get involved with something more than work and the gym.

So I went onto Craigslist and joined the Upper East Side Book Club, which was looking for new members because many of the old members had moved on or didn't have enough time for the club. Though I do not live on the east side, the founding members of the club said that they had members from all over and didn't care where I lived as long as I could get to the east side for their monthly meetings.

I've been to two meetings so far, and absolutely love it. The club is small, with about 25 members, but all of them that I've met so far are female and around my age. They're smart, funny, intelligent, and they encourage me to read more good books, so I love it!

And I especially loved it when we were sitting around discussing what to read next at this month's meeting and one of the girls suggested reading "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich. The novel is based on a true story about a group of MIT students who learned how to count cards while playing Blackjack and made millions of dollars with that talent in Las Vegas.

The movie "21," which comes out later this month, is based on the novel. So I seconded the suggestion to read the novel and then asked the group if they would be in favor of seeing the movie when we meet next for book club before going to the coffee shop we usually meet at to talk about whether we liked the book or the movie better. Then, like a dork, I told them that I made the suggestion because I want to see the movie - preferably with a friend - and they were my only friends. They responded with "awww," laughed, and agreed with my suggestion, so I took that as a good sign.

So I officially have a date - WITH FRIENDS - to see a movie on April 14. Go me!

Worst pup parents ever

As I exhaustively outlined in my previous blog entry, Brent and I had a crazy weekend when we went back to Toledo for wedding stuff.

While I love going home, I was hesitant to go home this past weekend because it meant I was not only going to leave Chloe home by herself in an empty apartment for the first time (with someone dropping by to take her out three times a day, of course) but I was also going to be gone on March 7 - Chloe's 4th birthday.

I'm totally the worst pup parent ever.

However, before I left, I instructed Carol - the woman who lives two doors down who volunteered to look after my baby girl - to give her extra special love and attention on March 7, which is probably not Chloe's actual birthday, but it is the day I adopted her from the pup pound two years ago.

Though it broke my heart to leave Chloe all alone on her birthday, I felt a little better that Brent and I are the most ridiculous pup parents ever and we actually sang happy birthday to our dog right before we left. And I felt much better when I called Carol - who owns Lucy, a border collie mix who Chloe LOVES to play with - over the weekend and she said that she and Chloe were having a blast going for long walks in the park.

As long as my baby was happy - and not looking for us out the window of the apartment like she is in the photo - that made me happy.

Besides, as I told Chloe when I got home - I'll totally make it up to her on her 5th birthday. As long as I'm not in Toledo.

Wedding planning craziness

WHEW! I just got back to New York City after a crazy, whirlwind weekend trip to Toledo and man am I tired!

It's hard enough to plan a wedding, but it's even harder to plan one 600 miles away from where it's going to be held. So I crammed about a million appointments and an amazing bridal shower into one weekend and now feel much better about the fact that it's just more than THREE MONTHS AWAY!!! YIKES!!!

FRIDAY
Brent and I landed in the freezing cold Detroit late Thursday night, and I started my crazy wedding-planning weekend Friday afternoon by meeting up with my cousin, Breanne - who's also one of my bridesmaids - for lunch along with my mom and sister, who's my maid of honor.

OK, OK, so that was just for fun, but then we did go across the street to Atlas Bridal so I could get fitted for my amazingly beautiful wedding dress and the maid-of-honor dress that I'll be wearing for Brea's wedding. While we were there, she tried on her wedding dress and we took pictures because that will be the only time we'll be wearing wedding dresses together! (I'd post those photos because I love them, but then Brent and Mike might see them!)

Ninety minutes later, my sister, mom, and I scrambled over to Central Park West - which is where my reception will be held - to meet Brent and his mom to go over the little details, like napkin colors, tablecloths, centerpieces, food choices, etc.

Here's how spoiled my soon-to-be husband is. We decided to offer our guests chicken Dijon and roast beef at our reception along with twice-baked potatoes as one of the side dishes. But the woman helping us plan our reception told us that the kitchen staff will make us whatever we wanted to eat. I quickly told her I was perfectly happy with chicken Dijon and a twice-baked potato. Both were fantastic at the bridal tasting.

After thinking about it for a minute, Brent requested that they prepare salmon and red potatoes for him. Seriously. As if the day isn't going to be special enough for him, he thinks he needs a special meal. I'm going to become your WIFE and life-long partner that day, honey!

Afterward, we had about two hours to kill before meeting with both of our parents for a nice, relaxing dinner, so we spontaneously drove to his sister and brother-in-law's house to play with our nieces.

Time with the little ones went by way too fast before we had to jump in the car for dinner at PF Chang's, which has special meaning for me because that was the restaurant where Brent and I went to dinner the evening he proposed to me.

This visit was a bit different, though. Brent and I met up with both sets of our parents and right after we sat down, our waiter took one look at our table and said, "Wow, so we have three generations, here, huh?" What?!?! Our parents are all about the same age, so we were left wondering which set of parents were supposed to be the grandparents. "Well, there goes his tip," Brent's mom said as the waiter was corrected and slunk away from our table.

The rest of the dinner, however, was fantastic, even though we walked in the restaurant when it was cold out and walked out in the middle of a torrential snowstorm. That, however, didn't stop us from heading to Starbucks for some coffee and a wedding invitation discussion, which the guys totally hated, but whatever.

SATURDAY
I had to look especially good today because after meeting with the cake lady, Brent and I had an appointment with a photographer for an engagement photo session - even though we've been engaged for over a year. But I didn't care. Brent could quite possibly be the least photogenic person on the planet, and he knows it, so he avoids being in front of the camera at all costs. I have exactly two photos of us together that I like, so it's high time I get a new one!

Our appointment with the cake lady was definitely Brent's favorite because he got to sample the cake, so that left him happy during our nearly hour-long appointment where we designed our cake and picked out many delicious flavors. YUM!

And we were even on time for our engagement shoot, even though the snow hadn't stopped and Brent and my mom were literally forced to push her Dodge Neon out of the cake lady's driveway.
This particular photographer had a studio in her basement, which was great. What was weird was that though she positioned us in about a dozen different positions - us facing each other, him behind me, him in a chair with me standing behind him, etc., she took exactly one photo of the two of us in each position. So when it came time to choose photos for her to print up for us, a few positions that I thought would have been cute were ruled out automatically because one of us blinked or one of us (Brent) wasn't quite ready for the photo to be taken.

Even so, there were three photos of us that I loved - even though the heavy winter sweater I was wearing added about 10 pounds to my body (Man!) - so I made sure to order all three of them!

Dinner tonight was reserved especially for my friends, whom I SOOOOO miss in New York. And though I would have loved to have quality time with Jon, Maureen, Ryan, Iggy, Susan, and little Sophia, I settled for a nice, long dinner for the five of us to catch up at the Elephant Bar while Iggy focused his energy on jokingly feeding his one-month-old daughter ribs and beer.

SUNDAY
I was so glad that we turned the clocks forward an hour today for daylight savings time because that meant that I didn't have to wait as long for my bridal shower!

The party was hosted at my future mother-in-law's home and was given by her and my future sister-in-law, Stephanie. And boy did they go all out with the food and the decorations!

I wore my "bride-to-be" crown for nearly the whole party and was showered with amazing gifts that ranged from bed sheets and a hand-made quilt to a toilet plunger and cocktail shaker. Thanks to everyone!

Brent took a nap upstairs to avoid all the women and woke up to eat leftovers. A typical guy all the way.

Since the party was the last wedding-type event of the weekend, Brent and I capped off the weekend playing Euchre with his parents by their fireplace Sunday night before heading to my parents' house on Monday so my mom could drive us to the airport.

Even though I wish I would have had more quality visiting time with family and friends, that looks like it will just have to wait until AFTER my wedding day!

The ONE day I decide to skip working out...

OK, OK - I admit it. I skipped working out on Friday night to go to the museum (see my March 1, 2008 post). So of course, something cool happened at my gym that totally would have made working out worthwhile.

This small article was in the New York Post on March 3, 2008: (When they refer to "hardbodies," I'm sure they're talking about me...)

"The hardbodies at Club H on West 55th Street broke down laughing when nine platinum blondes, decked out in hot pink workout gear, strolled in Friday and began exercising with pink dumbbells, pink abdominal balls and wiping down with pink towels.

'They were so cute, they were singing showtunes,' said our spy. The group was filming "Legally Blonde: The Search for the New Elle Woods," a new MTV reality show to air this spring in which one contestant is chosen to replace Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy in the lead role. Hailey Duff, who was coaching the girls at the gym, will host."

Damn! I miss all the good stuff!

Sheer beauty... for free!

I had the day off today, and Brent was working all day, so I set my mind to doing something "New York-y."

So I grabbed the computer for some preferably cheap suggestions.

What could be cheaper than free?

Through my research, I discovered that the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) gives out free tickets to those who want to visit the museum between 4 and 8 p.m. on Friday nights.

I've been saving that museum for a day when I had plenty of time to go because I've heard such awesome things about it and because my favorite painting, Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night," is there in its permanent collection.

And since it was well within walking distance, I set out around 3:45 p.m. to make sure I got a free ticket.

Afterwards, I (almost) felt guilty for being able to enjoy such an amazing place while giving them absolutely nothing - except my awe - in return.

Below are some of my favorites from the trip:

"Starry Night" tops the list, of course. I actually felt myself tearing up for finally, FINALLY! being able to see it in person.

However, I really hated that they put such an ornate frame around the painting, which can obviously stand alone.

My parents bought me a replica of the painting, and I have hung it up everywhere I've lived since receiving it without any frame whatsoever.

The painting with the frame is from the museum. The one without the frame is hanging in the entryway at my apartment. Which one do you think looks better?

But there were many other artists I was unfamiliar with whose work touched me as well.

I loved the following two paintings by Vasily Kandinsky. Both are "nonobjective paintings" that depict no recognizable objects.

The artist stressed the impact of color and its association with music, saying "Color is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings."

This bronze plaque by Jenny Holzer is totally the mantra of my life:

This work by Jackson Pollock's struck me as chaotically perfect:




I never realized water could be so beautiful until viewing the following photos by Roni Horn. Plus, it reminded me of the Great Lakes and, therefore, home.



I normally don't get the "artwork" that consists of a simple, straight line across a canvas. However, I actually got the following painting by Yves Klein. This monochrome abstraction (the use of one color over an entire canvas) challenges our expectations of what an image can and should represent. He created this shade of blue with a chemist. It's designed to evoke boundlessness reflecting his own particular utopian vision of the world.



This work by Vik Muniz was made entirely of garbage, metal, discarded screws, and old appliances. It took me a minute to see the faces in the work, but I love that "junk" can be recycled and become something so beautiful:



I thought it was really cool that this man's face is entirely made up of computer-generated people or objects:




It took me a minute to see the brown bear in this photograph, but when I did, I thought, "What a photographer!"

(See the bottom row of teeth gripping the very bottom of the sign?)

There were so many more amazing works in this fantastic museum, and these amateur photos of mine obviously don't do them justice. Therefore, I'd totally recommend this museum to anyone who appreciates art - and even those who don't. They may just change their minds.

What did I have to lose?

Anyone who knew me toward the beginning of my high school career would remember a shy, quiet, nerdy kid who stayed out of the limelight. It was hard for me to talk to new people because I was so self-conscious and preferred to just stick to myself.

Back then, I never would have had the guts to just go up to someone and say, essentially, "Give me an awesome job, please!" Plus, I never really was that desperate.

But now I'm ready to try just about anything (short of sleazy).

So when I walked into Club H for my workout the other day, I noticed a sign at the front desk saying "Welcome GLAAD Media!" Glancing into the lounge area, I spotted about 50 well-dressed people mingling, sipping drinks, and enjoying appetizers (yes, this was at my gym - it kicks ass, yo!)

After my workout, I called over one of the trainers I've gotten to know and asked him what the event was all about. He was less than helpful in knowing what was going on, but did encourage me to go and talk to some people when I told him I wished I had the courage to just go in there and strike up a conversation with these people, who are a part of the industry I am interested in.

With his encouragement, I somehow found the balls to waltz into the group of people - in my workout gear, mind you - and opened up a conversation with a friendly looking man who was standing near a table by himself.

He explained to me that GLAAD was the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in the media - not exactly what I thought it was. Damn.

But... 30 minutes later, we finished our conversation with him giving me his business card and inviting me to e-mail him so he could let me know about the openings at his advertising firm that dreams up campaigns for Broadway shows.

SCORE!!!!

Before going into journalism, I had considered advertising and am DEFINITELY still interested in that industry. Coupled with the fact that his firm works with Broadway shows, and I think I may have a winner!

Even if it doesn't go anywhere, I'm still proud of myself for showing that initiative. The "old" Erika would have totally missed out on what could be a fantastic opportunity.

One big lesson I've learned since coming to the city is that it's all about networking.

Now if I only had a bigger network...