Monday, December 31st, 2011

Good morning, friends!  This is one of my favorite times of the year!!!  This was what we looked like last year at this time.  No little Bear yet-just the 3 of us. Ever since I've been small I've loved making New Year's resolutions.  I'm a goal person.  I like to set goals and then reach them.  I dig it.  I don't understand how people don't make New Year's resolutions!  It's a time of the year to look back and appreciate the good things about your life and what you did, and also a time to say "this is what I'd like to do better to live the life I want."

These are the things I'm proud of about the past year:

1.  I worked harder than I ever have before to finish my first year of grad school.  One of my favorite achievements occurred last March when I got the results of my first Cell Bio exam.  After studying for weeks, neglecting the rest of my life, and giving it all I thought I had,  I'd low passed.  LOW PASSED! (If you low pass 2 out of the 3 exams you fail the course). It was a terrible feeling.  Not because I'd low passed, but because I worked so hard and STILL low passed.  Everything inside me told me I wasn't good enough - wasn't smart enough - that they'd made a mistake letting me in.  I burned the exam in the toilet and sobbed to my Dad that I would honor the next one (I can be a little dramatic at times).  I didn't honor the next one, but I high passed it and then, finally, I honored the last one.  I was so proud of that.  It took absolutely everything I had.  I learned about myself that I can do it.  

2.  I had my first fully vegetarian year.  My body feels better than ever and I feel better than ever about my food choices.  I could expound about the philosophy of how we treat animals and food choices and yahta yahta yahta, but the bottom line is that I think it's wrong and I know it's unsustainable, bad for the environment, and promotes high cholesterol, heart disease, and a host of other health maladies.  I joined a CSA, which meant I paid a little more to support a small family-run farm and eat organic produce, but it forced me to learn how to cook for myself and broadened what I eat on a daily basis.  It was one of the best 500 bucks I've ever spent.

3.  I had my best, most committed running year ever.  I remember going for runs with my Dad when I was about 12 or 13.  I've always run, but mostly it was to stay in shape for basketball.  In the past 7 years I've really gotten in to it.  Last year my goal was to run 1000 miles.  I didn't.  I ran 856.  I didn't reach it - but I bested my best year by more than 100 miles.

4.  I took my dogs almost every day to the Park.  It's tough to get up at 6am every day in wind, rain, heat, snow, sleet.  But I did it - and I did it because I love them.


My New Year's Resolutions for 2013:

1.  Stop eating crap when you get home from work.  This is the worst.  When I get home from work I'm like a starving snow yeti.  I will eat anything that's around.  Slices of bread with big hunks of cold butter spread on them, ice cream, nuts, tortillas, cheese off the block, chocolate, peanut butter out of the jar, salad croutons out of the bag... My goal this year is to plan better.  If I have things around that I can easily eat that are healthy - I'll stop eating crap when I get home.  Every Sunday I'm going to make something that I can easily heat up or eat right away that is good for me and that I can eat after work.

2.  Run 1000 miles.  Yep, this is the year.

3.  Learn to cook at least 15 NEW vegetarian meals.  (I'll write them down as I go so I know where I'm at).  I'll also be joining my CSA again, so this should be an even better year.

4.  This is the biggest one - Work on eliminating negative thoughts from my mind.  If you know me, you probably know that I love yoga.  I have done it pretty regularly for several years now and the more I do it, the more I realize how many wonderful things it offers you.  One of the major aspects of yoga is eliminating negativity and being mindful of the energy you put out into the world.  This might seem a little vague, but my goals are concrete.  When I have a negative thought (about someone, something, my body, my abilities, NYC, traffic, you name it...), I'll replace it with another thought.  I won't share negativity with others.  To do this, I'll avoid gossip and I will avoid negative conversation topics with others.

Happy New Year's, folks!

Carpe diem!

J

 

Friday, December 28th, 2012

Good morning!  Back to our usual routine today.  Well...sort of.  Remember how I told you getting up early was the toughest thing to get back?  Well we did go to the Park this morning but I was up at 7:15 instead of 6.  I think it's making it tougher that I know next week I'll be gone again - so it doesn't really feel like I'm "back." I'm on vacation mode.  Not even vacation mode - I still don't mind working - I like work.  I just want to sleep in.  In case you were wondering that little one up there is Bear with his Christmas collar on the way home from Chatham on Christmas Day.  He does not like to put his head down in his bag.  He likes to be aware of what's happening at all times.  

I'm SOOOO excited to go home to Oregon next week!!  

Here's a little video of Bear playing his favorite game:

http://youtu.be/3NtSlGFDr0Q

Carpe diem,

J 

Thursday, December 27th, 2012
Lots of places & lots of times

Good morning!  Welcome back to Little Dogs, Big Park.  We're getting back into the swing of things here in the big apple.  I tend to let myself get a little lazy around the holidays so it's always an adjustment to get back into it.  In particular I allow myself to sleep in during the holidays, and that's the toughest thing to get back.  It's tough to wake up at 6.  This morning it was unfortunately raining pretty hard at 6am.  You know I usually deal with rain but this was hard, cold rain.

We had some snow here over the holidays - which was beautiful!  I LOVE snow!!  Wish it had been snow this morning instead of rain! 

Happy Holidays, friends. 

Carpe diem,

J

Friday, December 21st 2012

Good morning!   Sorry AGAIN no picture!  It is a nasty, nasty morning here in NYC.  Heavy rain all morning and really high winds.  When I got up at 6, it was too nasty even for us die-hard Park-goers.  The pups got only a little walk around the block :(  (and they were happy about it - they didn't want to be outside).  They're dirty little dogs and need a bath this evening before we head to Chatham for the holidays.  I've also gotten them some little holiday bandanas so that they'll be festive. 

My birthday was wonderful!  Chris Botti did not disappoint last night - he was just as incredible as last year.  Lisa Fisher was his main singer and she toured with the Rolling Stones for 19 YEARS before joining Chris.  She's absolutely freaking incredible and an amazing stage presence.  She really gets the audience going.  We were going to eat at the Blue Note, but the prices were ridiculous.  30 dollars and up per plate.  I don't THINK so.  So we wandered a bit and were about to settle for pizza when we found an awesome little hole in the wall called Dos Toros.  6 dollars per quesadilla.  Fresh black beans, peppers and onions fried up on the grill while you waited, rice, and their homemade salsa and hot sauce.  Brian got the pork and I had vegan.  They were so GOOD!  We scarfed them and then headed over to the Blue Note where I got an embarassingly blue martini and enjoyed just absolutely incredible music. 

Happy Holidays from 2 little dogs!

Carpe diem,

J

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Good morning!  There is a lot to be happy about today at Little Dogs, Big Park! 

Sorry I don't have a picture today.  I slept in today because I forgot to set my alarm last night because I fell asleep on the couch after mowing through an enormous quantity of Chinese broccoli with peanuts and brown rice. I just didn't have it together.  But I had a beautiful morning walk in the Park and upon returning found to my HAPPY surprise that Brian had not left for work!  He stayed this morning so that we could have breakfast together!  (Something that never happens during the week).  So we went for egg sandwiches and coffees and remarked how nice it was and that we wish we could do that every day. 

Then he went to work and I, unshowered, unchanged from walking the dogs in dirty, ripped jeans with crushed dog treats in the pocket, went to work.  My boss skyped me to wish me a happy birthday and I am now sitting, chatting with you at my desk computer.

This evening we are going to the Blue Note to see Chris Botti again (YAYYY!).  This is what we did last year on my birthday and it was INCREDIBLE.  I'm very excited.  We're going to have dinner in the West Village to celebrate all we have to celebrate.  In addition to my 26th year of life, Brian passed his big test yesterday!  He had a 6 hour exam for the Series 7 - which he needed for work.  Now I think he's licensed to buy and sell almost any type of security there is. It was a big accomplishment and something that he worked very, very hard for during the past month. 

I'm super proud of him. 

That is all. 

Carpe diem,

J

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Treated to an incredible sunrise in the Park today.  I wish you could have seen what happened next.  I really couldn't capture it with a photograph.  Peeks of fluorescent orange and pink clouds, radiant orange and red light.  A photo would simply not have done it justice.  The clouds were an absolutely incredible color - true bright pink - like someone had dashed paint into the sky.  A treat after dark and rainy mornings the past week. 

A non-incredible surprise was remembering this morning that I'm out of coffee.  That is non-incredible and necessitates an immediate trip to the store. 

Good luck to Brian taking his Series 7 today!!!

Carpe diem!

J

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  This is a picture of my little Glowdoggies at the Park on another dark, wet morning. 

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

J