I love going to the racetrack. My dad, brother and I have gone to Monmouth Park at least once a summer since I was old enough to place $2 bets. We take our cooler of sandwiches and beer, set up lawn chairs along the track’s fence, work on our tans and pretend to know what we’re doing. Our betting isn’t sophisticated, though we go one step beyond banking on a horse’s name. My top three reasons to bet on a horse are: 1) if it has the biggest hind legs. 2) if jockey Edgar Prado is riding (he’s awesome). 3) if the odds are such that this horse’s victory will pay for parking for the day.
Strangely enough, I also love floppy hats, which is why I quickly agreed to go with Courtney and Joe to a Kentucky Derby Day charity outing organized by her Microsoft friends on Saturday. The last time I wore a floppy hat was in Melbourne (Australia) for Melbourne Cup Day, which is actually a public holiday. The city shuts down for the races and people start drinking champagne at 9am. Love Australia. Anyway, Greg – in his white linen suit, no less – and I met up with Courtney, Joe and a gaggle of twenty- and thirtysomethings at Post Bar in Post Alley at noon. The event organizers had spent the night creating (and taste-testing) gallons of mint juleps to bring on our (school bus!) ride to Seattle’s closest racetrack, Emerald Downs. Six gallons, actually. For a half-hour ride. We brought Post Bar’s bartender along for safety’s sake.
The mint juleps actually calmed some nerves when our bus, manned by “Dollar” Bill, got stuck in the alleyway. That was fun. The final destination was well worth it, though. Check out the outfits and the track [see pics below]. We didn’t win any money (Edgar Prado let me down), but the sun came out and we had a fun time playing the ponies. One guy in our group bet $10 on the 50-1 Kentucky Derby winner and left with $500 in his pocket. Not too shabby.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
When pigs attack
Fact: It is 1,272 miles from Seattle to Tijuana, Mexico.
Fact: As of this afternoon, there are 13 suspected cases of swine flu in Washington state.
Fact: I saw two people walking around downtown Seattle wearing surgical masks today. Two of thousands, but still -- two.
Which begs two questions: Are surgical masks trendy? And HOW THE HELL did swine flu make it up here? Someone please explain...
Fact: As of this afternoon, there are 13 suspected cases of swine flu in Washington state.
Fact: I saw two people walking around downtown Seattle wearing surgical masks today. Two of thousands, but still -- two.
Which begs two questions: Are surgical masks trendy? And HOW THE HELL did swine flu make it up here? Someone please explain...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sucked in
When I move somewhere new, I enjoy reading books about or based in my adopted home-region. It gives me some perspective when I write -- and keeps me from saying embarrassing things around complete strangers. "You mean the Olympics were never held in the Olympic Peninsula?" That kind of thing.
I'm starting with a classic: Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. It's set in Forks, Wa. (though you all know this already, since I'm at least a couple years behind this trend.) And much like its lead character, this book has the potential to eat me alive. I can't put it down. I read it in the kitchen while making dinner; while walking outside; at the gym; during lunch; instead of working; at night before bed, and first thing when I wake up. I wake up early, just to read it. I feel horribly guilty, like I'm addicted to a teenager's diary. Though I have technically learned something about NW Washington state: 1. It rains there more than anywhere else in the US. 2. There are vampires there.
Does anyone have any other recommendations on good Seattle, Washington or Pacific NW literature I should check out? I should be done with this paper-based cocaine tonight.
I'm starting with a classic: Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. It's set in Forks, Wa. (though you all know this already, since I'm at least a couple years behind this trend.) And much like its lead character, this book has the potential to eat me alive. I can't put it down. I read it in the kitchen while making dinner; while walking outside; at the gym; during lunch; instead of working; at night before bed, and first thing when I wake up. I wake up early, just to read it. I feel horribly guilty, like I'm addicted to a teenager's diary. Though I have technically learned something about NW Washington state: 1. It rains there more than anywhere else in the US. 2. There are vampires there.
Does anyone have any other recommendations on good Seattle, Washington or Pacific NW literature I should check out? I should be done with this paper-based cocaine tonight.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Seattle first impressions
1. On a nice day, there are a LOT of low-flying planes just south of Seattle – kind of disarming for a couple of NY/NJ transplants. Then you notice they’re just propeller planes, and the Boeing airfield is right there, and it makes a bit more sense. But when was the last time you saw 7, 8 planes flying around in the same small airspace?
2. Seattle really is beautiful – especially the skyline. There are trees in five shades of green, and crazy manmade structures like the Space Needle and Safeco Field with its retractable dome. There’s Puget Sound to the west, mountains everywhere -- though Mount Rainier is currently closed. Not sure how you close a mountain, but there was a sign that said so.
3. Something else to get used to: the high number of homeless in Seattle. Granted, we're coming off a year in Singapore, where I literally never saw a single homeless person. (I think they were put on boats to Indonesia -- one of those "don't ask, don't tell" policies.)
4. Conservation is a big thing in Washington, which is one of the most liberal states in the US. To preserve land space, houses are built very close to each other and there are few, if any, train lines running to the suburbs. It’s a big point of contention here – no train tracks ripping through green space, but more cars on the road.
5. Our neighborhood Belltown is supposedly “the place to be"...woohoo! As I’ve read, Belltown used to be a gritty neighborhood a couples blocks off the waterfront, but after some serious gentrification and condo-building, now boasts some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. And to quote my friend Allison, it really does feel like Brooklyn with more trees. We had New York-style pizza one night, Spanish tapas the next in a place straight out of Prospect Heights. There’s this bar called Stony’s with “Coney Island” and circus stripes painted on the window fronts. There are usually a lot of pierced, Mohawked twentysomethings in black hoodies sitting outside drinking beer and brooding. Grunge is definitely alive and well in Seattle. I have to work on my brooding.
2. Seattle really is beautiful – especially the skyline. There are trees in five shades of green, and crazy manmade structures like the Space Needle and Safeco Field with its retractable dome. There’s Puget Sound to the west, mountains everywhere -- though Mount Rainier is currently closed. Not sure how you close a mountain, but there was a sign that said so.
3. Something else to get used to: the high number of homeless in Seattle. Granted, we're coming off a year in Singapore, where I literally never saw a single homeless person. (I think they were put on boats to Indonesia -- one of those "don't ask, don't tell" policies.)
4. Conservation is a big thing in Washington, which is one of the most liberal states in the US. To preserve land space, houses are built very close to each other and there are few, if any, train lines running to the suburbs. It’s a big point of contention here – no train tracks ripping through green space, but more cars on the road.
5. Our neighborhood Belltown is supposedly “the place to be"...woohoo! As I’ve read, Belltown used to be a gritty neighborhood a couples blocks off the waterfront, but after some serious gentrification and condo-building, now boasts some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. And to quote my friend Allison, it really does feel like Brooklyn with more trees. We had New York-style pizza one night, Spanish tapas the next in a place straight out of Prospect Heights. There’s this bar called Stony’s with “Coney Island” and circus stripes painted on the window fronts. There are usually a lot of pierced, Mohawked twentysomethings in black hoodies sitting outside drinking beer and brooding. Grunge is definitely alive and well in Seattle. I have to work on my brooding.
"Rainy" Seattle
I know, I'm tempting fate with that headline...but it's been sunny seven out of eight days since Greg and I moved to Seattle.
I'm currently sitting on the rooftop deck of Greg's apartment building, where there's free Wi-Fi and panoramic views of Puget Sound. I'd probably be drinking a glass of prosecco if it wasn't 11am. (No need to go the Hemingway route yet.) Once I've gotten my camera to cooperate with my computer, I'll upload photos of this view. Mount Rainier is off to the left, and it's unreal -- like it's painted onto the sky. I can't stop staring at it. I'm having a staring contest with a mountain, and I think I'm losing. This is probably the No 1 sign that I need a job -- but I've been pretty content writing and exploring since I got here, a bit every day. I have a meeting with the editor of Seattle Metropolitan magazine next week, and I've been working on some pitches, too.
Speaking of jobs: Greg's almost done with his first week of work at Amazon, and he loves it. He goes to work in T-shirts, and works a couple floors above the CEO, Jeff Bezos. And in the "small world" category, we had dinner last night at a Malay satay house with a Singaporean guy named JS who's 1) on Greg's team and 2) lives in his building. ha!
We've also spent some time at our friends Courtney and Joe's house in Maple Valley, about 20 minutes outside of Seattle. They've really made us feel at home since we got here. They also have Rock Band, so I will spend half of my time there perfecting my vocals on "Dani California." Courtney works for Microsoft, so I got to meet her for lunch at the "campus." It literally does feel like a college campus for thirtysomethings+ -- people were sitting around in shorts and T-shirts, eating from the brand new (awesome) food court, and playing basketball on their lunch break. Not too shabby.
The four of us also went to a Mariners game on Saturday night (hard to believe we waited two whole nights before going to a baseball game). Safeco (Mariners) and Qwest (Seahawks) stadiums are within walking distance of Greg's place -- granted, it's a 25-minute walk, but it's along the waterfront. You can stop for crab cakes along the way if you get hungry. The game was quick (efficient pitching?), our seats and the stadium great -- though the Mariners lost 2-0 to the Detroit Tigers. But at least we were getting an authentic Seattle experience (ohh zing!). We're already planning on going to the Yankees series in July.
Tonight we're having dinner and going bowling with Travis and his fiancee, Margot. Travis and I grew up together about three houses down from each other on Rosalie Ave (small world reference #2). And then tomorrow, all of our stuff comes! It's been on the road, being shipped, for about 10 days -- if anything happened to my bag of shoes, so help me...
I'm currently sitting on the rooftop deck of Greg's apartment building, where there's free Wi-Fi and panoramic views of Puget Sound. I'd probably be drinking a glass of prosecco if it wasn't 11am. (No need to go the Hemingway route yet.) Once I've gotten my camera to cooperate with my computer, I'll upload photos of this view. Mount Rainier is off to the left, and it's unreal -- like it's painted onto the sky. I can't stop staring at it. I'm having a staring contest with a mountain, and I think I'm losing. This is probably the No 1 sign that I need a job -- but I've been pretty content writing and exploring since I got here, a bit every day. I have a meeting with the editor of Seattle Metropolitan magazine next week, and I've been working on some pitches, too.
Speaking of jobs: Greg's almost done with his first week of work at Amazon, and he loves it. He goes to work in T-shirts, and works a couple floors above the CEO, Jeff Bezos. And in the "small world" category, we had dinner last night at a Malay satay house with a Singaporean guy named JS who's 1) on Greg's team and 2) lives in his building. ha!
We've also spent some time at our friends Courtney and Joe's house in Maple Valley, about 20 minutes outside of Seattle. They've really made us feel at home since we got here. They also have Rock Band, so I will spend half of my time there perfecting my vocals on "Dani California." Courtney works for Microsoft, so I got to meet her for lunch at the "campus." It literally does feel like a college campus for thirtysomethings+ -- people were sitting around in shorts and T-shirts, eating from the brand new (awesome) food court, and playing basketball on their lunch break. Not too shabby.
The four of us also went to a Mariners game on Saturday night (hard to believe we waited two whole nights before going to a baseball game). Safeco (Mariners) and Qwest (Seahawks) stadiums are within walking distance of Greg's place -- granted, it's a 25-minute walk, but it's along the waterfront. You can stop for crab cakes along the way if you get hungry. The game was quick (efficient pitching?), our seats and the stadium great -- though the Mariners lost 2-0 to the Detroit Tigers. But at least we were getting an authentic Seattle experience (ohh zing!). We're already planning on going to the Yankees series in July.
Tonight we're having dinner and going bowling with Travis and his fiancee, Margot. Travis and I grew up together about three houses down from each other on Rosalie Ave (small world reference #2). And then tomorrow, all of our stuff comes! It's been on the road, being shipped, for about 10 days -- if anything happened to my bag of shoes, so help me...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Silver is distinguished, right?
I found a gray hair the other day. Not, like, on the floor. In my hand. I had just taken a quick swipe through my hair to get rid of some knots, and there it was. I’ve written off potential gray hair before as blond, or not mine, but there was no hiding this one: it was long and silver gray, straight from my scalp. “It’s a beaut,” according to my dad. I sat and stared at it for a while, like it was a relic, a peso, a rare breed of frog. I mean, I am only 27. Was it from stress? Or am I just predetermined to have streaks of silver by the time I’m 30? Should I call Stacy London for advice?
“I started going gray in college,” my dad said. Great. This is the man I also inherited my blindness, incredibly crooked teeth and gastrointestinal drama from. Jennifer Aniston found a gray hair last week, too, right before her 40th birthday. She locked herself in the bathroom and cried. 40! Not 27! 40! At least I didn’t cry. I just put the hair in a baggie and showed it to my boyfriend. He wasn’t impressed.
“I started going gray in college,” my dad said. Great. This is the man I also inherited my blindness, incredibly crooked teeth and gastrointestinal drama from. Jennifer Aniston found a gray hair last week, too, right before her 40th birthday. She locked herself in the bathroom and cried. 40! Not 27! 40! At least I didn’t cry. I just put the hair in a baggie and showed it to my boyfriend. He wasn’t impressed.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
My 5 seconds of fame? Ugh...
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6627518
UPPER WEST SIDE (WABC) -- Eyewitness News made a stunning discovery on the streets of the Upper West Side Monday night. Scores of documents were found strewn on the street for anyone to pick up.
The paper trail stretched for blocks, billowing in the cold breeze on Columbus Avenue. It was not litter, but bits and pieces of people's lives.
There were copies of bank statements, 401k statements, credit reports, tax returns and more driver's licenses than we could count.
Elyssa Shapiro was on her way to work and couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Just all kinds of information. Things that you never want anyone to know about yourself," she said. "It was four blocks worth of personal information and it was identity theft waiting to happen."
The documents belonged to the local office of Citi Habitats, one of New York's best-known real estate firms. Their clients, whose personal information we found amid the trash, were appalled.
"I feel kind of sick to be honest," former client Laura Dannen said.
Dannen used the firm to find an apartment in 2006. We found her name, phone number and annual income on a registration form.
"Just in the gutter? My life was in the gutter. That's nice," she said.
Paul Addessi is a doctor in Arizona. We found a portion of his 2006 tax return, listing his income and his social security number.
"They're getting the information, all this tax information, driver's license and everything, and they're not shredding the documents. They have a responsibility to shred the documents that they don't need," he said.
New York State law requires businesses to destroy or delete personal information before disposing of it.
Citi Habitat's president released a statement that read, in part, "We believe that during a refurbishing of our 465 Columbus Avenue office, paper that should have been shredded was improperly placed as trash.
"We took immediate steps," he insisted, "to investigate and remediate this isolated incident, and are notifying those customers whose information may have been compromised."
The firm did, in fact, send workers to clean up the mess. But we were still finding documents a block away a full eight hours after the clean up was over.
The documents that we saw appeared to pertain to real estate transactions that took place in 2006 and 2007. The firm insists its policy is to destroy all documents that they no longer need, but they could not explain why that did not happen in this case. -- NJ BURKETT
UPPER WEST SIDE (WABC) -- Eyewitness News made a stunning discovery on the streets of the Upper West Side Monday night. Scores of documents were found strewn on the street for anyone to pick up.
The paper trail stretched for blocks, billowing in the cold breeze on Columbus Avenue. It was not litter, but bits and pieces of people's lives.
There were copies of bank statements, 401k statements, credit reports, tax returns and more driver's licenses than we could count.
Elyssa Shapiro was on her way to work and couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Just all kinds of information. Things that you never want anyone to know about yourself," she said. "It was four blocks worth of personal information and it was identity theft waiting to happen."
The documents belonged to the local office of Citi Habitats, one of New York's best-known real estate firms. Their clients, whose personal information we found amid the trash, were appalled.
"I feel kind of sick to be honest," former client Laura Dannen said.
Dannen used the firm to find an apartment in 2006. We found her name, phone number and annual income on a registration form.
"Just in the gutter? My life was in the gutter. That's nice," she said.
Paul Addessi is a doctor in Arizona. We found a portion of his 2006 tax return, listing his income and his social security number.
"They're getting the information, all this tax information, driver's license and everything, and they're not shredding the documents. They have a responsibility to shred the documents that they don't need," he said.
New York State law requires businesses to destroy or delete personal information before disposing of it.
Citi Habitat's president released a statement that read, in part, "We believe that during a refurbishing of our 465 Columbus Avenue office, paper that should have been shredded was improperly placed as trash.
"We took immediate steps," he insisted, "to investigate and remediate this isolated incident, and are notifying those customers whose information may have been compromised."
The firm did, in fact, send workers to clean up the mess. But we were still finding documents a block away a full eight hours after the clean up was over.
The documents that we saw appeared to pertain to real estate transactions that took place in 2006 and 2007. The firm insists its policy is to destroy all documents that they no longer need, but they could not explain why that did not happen in this case. -- NJ BURKETT
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