New Blog and Business

My eyes hurt this morning. I think I might be falling apart. I think it's because I'm wearing my glasses and sometimes when I wear my glasses my eyes get sore, it's like they are adjusting or something. Who the hell knows. I just took them off. Luckily, I can see the computer screen with JUST my regular eyes. It's annoying though when I have to look up at something and can't see jack shit. Yesterday was a shit show that's for sure. Between my massive stomach ache in the morning and the market all day being in the red---record red, nothing seemed to be going right. It's ok, because today is a new day and I feel better about the way today will unfold.

Last night after work I met Jess in front of my building and we walked home. I talked a lot about work and all the crap that goes along with it and a lot of of other frustrating things that are going on right now. She listenened patiently---as always. On the way home we stopped at "Associated" to pick up some groceries for the dinner we were going to make. I love making dinner with her---the total food stuffs cost about $5-8. We made that tuna pasta thing that Beth invented in OBX. Yummy----it's so easy and delicious.

I have some left over tomatoes from my Valentine's day dinner with the girls and I think I'm going to make some gazpacho. Beth has a good recipe that I should probably ask for. I want the easiest one possible. I also want to use a blender b/c I think that blenders are great.

Jake and I are going to the Stewart's for breakfast one of the weekends I'm home. Excited for that. I think they'll like him...I mean, how can you not? Mrs. Stewart asked if we should eat in the dining room. I think that's a bit much? I don't want to get his ego up by saying that we never eat in the dining room and all of a sudden----we do when he comes over? The kitchen table it is.

I added a new blog to my links today---it's my friend Lindsey's. She RULES! I've known her forever and she's part of the MLW awesomeness. I also added MLW as a link thanks to her. I'd never thought of that before and she, being the genius that she is----gave me the idea. So---check her out (after you read my postings that is...). "Hi Linds!!! xoxoxoxo"

Fun fact: Today when I came into work there was this little booklet on my desk from the group in my company that is like the African Decent organization or something like that. I learned that one of our employees was part of the Little Rock Nine! That is so cool. I want to go and like interview him or something. Although I'm pretty sure he's high up in the company and won't want to talk to me anyway.

I'm already for today to be over.

Love,
Lauren

Jake Weekend and Oscars

Happy Birthday Charlie!
I hope you have a great day and that all your wishes come true.

This weekend Jake was in town---we had a blast. It was the first time he'd been up to NYC to see me so it was cool to show him around and everything. We managed to fit a lot in considering it wasn't that long. Weekends are never long enough. Highlights:

• Dinner at Piccolo Angolo
• Waking up lazy----going to breakfast at the diner, yum.
• going to the Met---teaching Jake about art a little bit
• drinks/snack at Mustangs for a few hours, playing song game
• Dinner at Rare with Becca, Jess, Eddie and Beth
• Out at Joshua Tree with Becca and Jess---lots of drinking
• waking up hungover on Sunday
• eating bagel sandwiches at H&H, starving
• walked to the planetarium---watched space show and Mars Rover IMAX---loved it
• walked back through Central park
• we were both really tired, relaxed until he left.

I took a KILLER nap after I dropped him off at the train station and before I headed over to Tessa's for Oscar night. It was good times. We finally got a chance to catch up and chat/hang. QT with my girl. Oscars were great. I was boosted about Martin Scorscese b/c he's so cute and short. I didn't see the Departed though---T will have to rent it stat.

The only downside was that I had to wait for a cab for like 30 minutes b/c it was icing and also freezing. Ah well----I eventually got home.

Love,

Lauren

Cleaning and Dodgeball

It's amazing what a little cleaning can do to your apartment.

Jake is coming this weekend and I wanted to clean the place up a bit. I dusted (?!) and I also vacuumed under my cabinets and in my under-the-sink cabinet in the kitchen. It was crazy! I got all these little crevices and everything---it was a miracle.

The real miracle was when I decided to change the lightbulbs in the living room and the kitchen. You could not believe how bright it is in there now! It's awesome! I can see everything and I don't need any other lamps like I usually have to turn on!

I still have a significant amount of work to do as far as cleaning. I have to unclog my drain in the bathtub b/c it's horrifying to look down there and it's starting to get all clogged and flooding when I'm in the shower. How gross is that? It really is gross. I also have to put away clothes, drop off my laundry, go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some new sheets and a new pillow I think and then I also have to vacuum more in my bedroom.

I was supposed to do like eight things that are planned for tonight but I really cancelled all of them except dodgeball. I LOVE dodgeball. I play with Lindsay and Jackie and a bunch of dudes, including one Austrialian one that is really good. I like playing with him. He's really intense. I hope we win both games tonight! That would be awesome. :)

I snapped my finger on a mouse trap last night as I was moving it to another location. It HURT SO BADLY! It's all black and blue now and is a constant reminder that I have mice. I caught one over the weekend when I was in LA.

OH--about LA, I'm still working on that entry. It will be coming soon. Probably later on this week. My bad. I'm just a busy girl! Don't you see how much crap I'm doing?!

I ate such a healthy lunch today---I had a salad with spinich, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, w/balsamic vinaigrette. I also had water. :)

OK---I need to stop rambling.

Love,
Lauren

V-Day and Travels

Good morning!

Well, I'm pretty tired considering my adventure last night. Even though so many of you had your fingers crossed for my flight not to be cancelled, it was. I checked online at like 2pm and found out that pretty much all the shuttle flights were cancelled b/c of the storm up the ENTIRE eastern seaboard. I called Jake and was desperately bummed out.

B/c I was so looking forward to seeing him and having Valentine's day dinner with him I bought a train ticket to DC. It was on time and perfect. The only bad thing was that I was so anxious about seeing him that it seemed to take forever. I finally got there in the bitter cold.

He is seriously the best boyfriend ever. He made me dinner---I will elaborate on the menu in a moment. He had this great bottle of wine that his mom had given him for xmas that he wanted to use on a special occasion---which is EXACTLY what last night was. Ok---he made these incredible lamb chops marinated in like rosemary and some other green stuff---he put those on the grill and then put this like tart sauce on it that was delicious. He also grilled shrimp and put pesto on it---omg. He made scalloped potatoes that was perfect and then the salad he made was to die for---it was spinich, orange pepper, pear, feta with this incredible vinaigrette.

For dessert, NICE champagne and this chocolate cake this his co-worker made for us (it was so cute that she baked that) . Jake put gummy bears on top b/c he knows I love them. We had an incredible night and it was literally perfect. Worth every penny of the train ticket. :)

The roses he got me smell so good right now at my desk. I wanted to take them home tonight but I have my suitcase from LAST night and my work bag and I can't carry a HUGE vase of roses too. I'm not that good. I will make sure to trim the stems and refresh the water before I leave for LA.

Speaking of LA---can I please tell you how excited I am about it?! It is 70+ degrees there right now. I can wear flip flops, sunglasses, and my awesome collection of capri pants that I've been wanting to break out for a while now. Too bad the artic chill has put a damper on my capri dreams. Can't wait! Don't be jealous....

I also have something else to say. Yesterday, Alexi called me while I was on the train and told me the most ridiculous thing EVER. She said that since she works by this big tower---when it snows or like gets all icey and then the ice starts to melt, these HUGE ice slabs fall hundreds of feet off the tower and smash into peoples cars and total them. Alexi said that THREE cars were totaled yesterday. The employees aren't allowed to leave the building b/c they might die if they get hit by a falling icicle.

Lets examine this for a second:
1. WTF?
2. people's cars getting totaled? people getting seriously hurt? liability much?
3. don't you think it would cost LESS money to protect the cars/people than paying money out after they are totalled? it's called prevention!
4. i still can't believe what Alexi told me. She also said that they ordered pizza for the whole building so no one would leave and then possibly die. again, would save money if they did something about the icicles.
5. WTF?

Ok, I have to get back to work.

Love,
Lauren

Anniversary and Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I want to take a moment to mark a very special day in the life of SimplyLauren. Today this blog is one year old. A whole year. Oh how we've grown so much together. So many stories. So many travels, rodents, friends, boys, food, parties and friends. Here's to many more years and many more life experiences. If you want to take a look back at some past entries, now is the time to do it. I hope you enjoy your reminiscing. :)

Last night the girls came over for dinner. It was delicious. I didn't make any mistakes really except for the one where when I used Vanilla Vodka in the Penne alla Vodka instead of normal. Thank god you couldn't taste it. The salad was fantastic and the Red Velvet cupcakes were AMAZING. I wish I could give you a virtual taste of them. Honest to God they were awesome. I'm not even trying to like talk it up or anything, they were da bomb. We had a great time all together. Yay for holiday dinners!

Tonight I am going down to see Jake for the evening. Yes, I'll literally only be gone for 12 hours, but to me it's worth it to see him. He's making me dinner but he refuses to tell me what it is. I like surprises. I'm getting nervous though b/c the weather is not exactly sunny and warm. It's all snowy and rainy and stuff. I am praying that there are no flight delays. It sucks b/c these planes come from Boston and stuff where it's probably colder and more snowy. I am thinking there is going to be some sort of delay. Not sure what I'm going to do if that happens. Probably cry a lot. I don't want to think about that. It's like----go tonight or go never b/c I can't take off tomorrow since Kerri is on vacation and I'm the only one that knows how to do this spreadsheet thing. It's like also tough b/c I'm leaving for LA after work on Friday to go out and see Amos and Liz. So much traveling!

So----for tonight, think happy airport thoughts, not bad ones.

There is a woman in one of my managers office right now and she is weating a clazer with red lips all over it. Yikes stripes! Also, as a sidebar, she is one of the ugliest people I know. I already know I'm going to hell--no need to remind me.

SHOUT OUTS:
Jess, Beth, LB: Thanks for coming last night. I had a great time! I love you all! xo

Darren---Yes, Jaxx and I are "running 'SEL". Want to staff? Let us know!

Jake: Happy Valentine's Day! xoxox

Keep reading and send my link to your friends!

Love,
Lauren

Baking Champion and German Chocolate

Last night was a shit show of sorts. I had so much to do and totally not enough time to do it.
I'm having another infamous dinner party tonight---theme: Valentine's Day. Shocker.

I'm really excited about the menu and of course everything surrounding the night. I would write about the menu on this blog, but it's a surprise for the people attending and I don't want to ruin it in case someone decides to read the blog and then find out what is going on. The only thing I told them is that the theme is "red". I mean, obviously the underlying theme is Valentine's Day, but everything they eat is going to be red.

So----I had to bake some sugar cookies, and frost and decorate them for the girls tonight. That took like two hours. Then I had to venture out to try and find a german chocolate cake mix.

TOO BAD NO GROCERY STORE ON THE ENTIRE UPPER EAST SIDE HAS THAT!!!

Luckily I did find a red velvet cake mix that I ended up using and I think they came out great. I spent a long time making them. It was seriously so annoying to walk to every store to try and fine this ficticious cake mix. Anyway---the only thing that changed was that I didn't have to add red food coloring.

I baked a butt load last night. I didn't have to stay up too late thought. Mostly cause I'm such a bad ass.

I will report tomorrow on how everything went. Be jealous.

Love,
Lauren

Cute Boyfriend Story:
Jake sent me a dozen long stemmed roses to work for Valentines' day. He also wrote me the cutest note about how it's his first good Valentine's day and that I was worth the wait. OMG---how cute is he??? I was so embarrased carrying the HUGE flowers back to my desk. Matt and Adam were giving me SUCH a hard time about it. My face was as red as the roses. I think that's part of the reason he sends them b/c he knows how embarrased I get. Ha! Anyway, they are gorgeous so I'm not complaining.

FDNY and MLW

Good Monday Morning! Remember when Donnie Simpson used to say that every morning on the bus to school at the old Blair when I actually used to take the bus? Anyway---I totally thought Donnie Simpson was white until I saw him at some PGC thing that I went to. I was shocked. You know how you are totally thinking what someone looks like after listening to them on the radio and everything and then you meet them and they are nothing like you'd imagined? Well that was the situation with me meeting Donnie Simpson. I just thought he was white. I know it didn't even technically make sense for him to be white since it was such an "urban" radio station and everything but like----still, I thought he was.

Anyway---Friday night I spent on the phone with Jackie planning MSEL 2007---get ready people. It's going to be amazing. I'm so excited about everything about the program and I think that everyone should come back and staff!!! I also spent it cleaning my god forsaken apartment. There were clothes every where. It seriously took me over two hours to put everything away. I still don't have ALL the clothes put away b/c I ran out of skirt hangers. I need to get some more.

Valentine's Day is coming up. I'm flying down for the night to see Jake. He's making me dinner and we are just going to hang out. He won't tell me what he's making, it's a surprise. I'm in that place right now where I want to know but I don't at the same time. It doesn't matter anyway b/c it's not like he's going to tell me either way. Should be good times. I'm praying for good weather on the flight down (and back for that matter) . It's supposed to snow and stuff---that wintry mix crap. What does that even mean? Is it like chex mix? A mix of what? There is only so many types of preciptation right? How can they all be coming down together? I might have to defer on weathergirl Alexi on this one...

Bottom Line: I'm excited.

On Saturday morning I woke up early to meet Jess at this bus stop in Harlem so that we could travel together to Randall's Island to the FDNY training facility. Jess is dating this REALLY cute guy Dillon who is a fireman. Yes, a fireman. Can you think of anything sexier? It was seriously one of the coolest things ever. There were like 200 fireman all in uniform and everything showing off their stuff. There was only ONE girl. She was my hero. Ok anyway----they were doing all these type of stunts and everything. Dillon=so adorable. I took a bunch of pictures and for those of you that actually know me and know how to hang out with me----I will show you them or send you to the link on yahoo.

For the rest of the weekend---it was great. QT with Jake. :) Fantastic as usual.

Alright----I'm getting sidetracked and I need to focus on work stuff. Mike just brought in these peppermint patties that are heart shaped and have pink insides. Yay! candy!

Have a great day everyone!


SHOUT OUTS:
Cem: Happy Birthday Yesterday! I hope you had a great day and I wish I had been down there to hang out with you and the gang! Also---good luck on your interview in Boston! I hope you get it.

Jake-:)

Jaxx---Can't wait to work with you this summer. It's going to be da bomb.


Love,
Lauren

Rested and Money

Last night I seriously went to be at like 10pm. I was so tired. I haven't been home relaxing after work in like longer than I can remember. I just needed to get some sleep instead of like pushing through each day like half asleep with my eyes burning and stuff. I felt great this morning when Jake called me to wake me up. It was such a change.

Jess came over after work---a much needed break from my crazy day. We made rice and beans and chowed DOWN! It was delicious as usual. I love making dinner with her. It's so easy and we are both so low maintenance. It was glorious. We shot the shit for a while in my apartment.

Speaking of my apartment, it's so messy right now. I think practically all my clothes are piled onto my couch at the moment. It's almost a disaster. The only part of my apt. that is "clean" are the dishes, which is a miracle in and of itself, but really it's b/c Jess did them after dinner. She's such a good friend.

There is a girl in my office, named Lauren, and she works on like Matt and Adam's team, so obviously I'm a little bit jealous of her because of that but really she's kind of immature. I like her I guess. I don't really know her b/c she doesn't talk to me. I think she's sort of intimidated by me or something but anyway she takes a cab to work every day. I heard her once talking about her boarding school. I mean the pieces are starting to come together about where she comes from (read: money). She lives 15 blocks away. I can't imagine taking a cab 15 blocks, even if I had the money, it's like a waste in every possible way.

I think that a lot of people in this business come from money. I also think that's fine. I mean, literally the great people I work with still to this day don't understand how I got a degree in something like "art history and political science". Degrees to them are like tangible skills that the learned for a job like the one they have now. I just find the differences between people fascinating.

This entry is sort of boring and I realize that. Maybe one day my entries will start being more interesting.

SHOUT OUTS:
Amos: You are a great cousin and I'm really boosed to see you and Liz next weekend. Holla!!!
Leah: B/c it seems like she needs a shout out right about now.
Jake: Obv. b/c you rule and are the best boyfriend ever.
Matt: Happy Birthday Yesterday!
Adam: This morning you have bed head and I made fun of you and then your come back was "hey Lauren, it's not valentines day yet (because i was wearing a pink sweater). Good one. (not)
Jess: for dinner and good conversation last night!

I love you all.

Lauren

New York and Dinner Last Night

This morning was cold. I walked out of my apartment this morning to a dusting of snow on the group and a seemingly silent city. I love New York in the early mornings. It really provides me with a sense of calm and it's a great start to my day.

Last night before I went to bed, when I was talking to Jake---my bedroom was freezing. It was particularly cold in my room. My windows suck and it's like my radiator can't emminate enough heat. I cranked it up, stuffed a bunch of old Blair t-shirts in the window bottom and then crawled back into my bed. This morning was great! It was warmish in my room and not like artic breeze that it was last night.

Last night after work I was talking to Jake on the phone and we were figuring out our Costa Rica plans. It turns out that we, being the un-researching idiots that we are, were flying into the wrong airport. We were flying into San Jose, which is the capital instead of the smaller airport, Liberia which is a 20 minute drive from the beach instead of a FIVE HOUR drive from the beach and the hotel we want to stay at. Are you kidding me?

*enter Lauren flipping out*

So---I basically made him take care of everything and he called up the airline. It turns out that we have to cancel our old tickets and buy new tickets into the right airport. It's way easier. Then we have like a butt load of credit on the airline (Taca Air---I know right?!) for another trip within the year. Anyway---it definitely sucked and I felt totally bad about the error, but now everything is ok and today we are booking the hotel. Whoo-hoo!

Then I went over to Lindsay's to hang out with Robert who was in town on business. We were supposed to hang out with him on Monday night but his flight kept getting delayed and stuff and Beth and I were too tired to hang around. We were really excited when he blew off his dinner to come hang out with us. LB was cooking dinner and we were chillin' with brewskys in her apt. Unfortunatly, I already had a dinner planned with my friend Matt from college. I seriously haven't seen Matt since graduation. We swam together on the club team and we had a mutual friend Aaron that was in like all my political science classes. Anyway---he works at Deutsche Bank downtown and we met up. We were supposed to go to the phatty burger place "Rare" but when we got there. I never made a reservation, like an idiot. The wait was going to be really long so instead we walked over to 3rd and found this italian place "Rio Grande" and had Mexican. It was really yummy. We had a great time and it was totally great to catch up with him. We should probably do it like every month---but you know how that goes.

Then I headed uptown in a cab in the FREEZING cold artic weather.

Today's Matt, my office crush's birthday. I just found out. Aww..... It's ok. Jake knows all about my office crush and everything and he's totally cool with it. He knows he's my main man.

Today should be a good day. But every day is a good day recently. I think it's b/c of Jake. :)

Sorry about the lack of posts, I'm really busy. It's almost insane how busy I am. I will work out some sort of schedule I promise.

Love,
Lauren

008 Weekend and Last Week Highlights

This weekend was 008 girls get together. We hadn't all been together since May of 2004 when we all went to the Outer Banks after graduation. I messed everything up when I got hit by the drunk driver and couldn't go to CK's wedding. Anyway---it was totally worth driving to Frederick for the trip. Carolyn has an awesome house and Frederick was pretty awesome as well.

A bunch of stuff happened last week that I kept meaning to write about in the blog but I never really got a chance too.

• Had dinner with Court and Gianna after a long ass meeting for work. We went to Bobby Van's and I had a killer steak. We all caught up and it was so great. I love the feeling of reconnection after so long without knowing what's going on with people.
• On Tuesday I went to see Sarah Silverman at Caroline's with Jess. She is so cute and hilarious. I'm really glad I went but Jess said that she was annoyed b/c a lot of her routines were from her movie which Jess already saw. It's cool how someone that is so cute can have such a filthy mouth.
• Caught TWO mice b/c I was smart and removed the peanut butter, made the traps more sensitive and doused them in vanilla extract. It was horribly disgusting but I totally caught TWO!!! I'm a rock star.
• Went to Timmy's send off party at Papillion for open bar and tons of work people fun. A bunch of us were planning on taking a trip together in March but really...my schedule would JUST not have it! So---a few people are going on the trip and the rest of us aren't. But I'm going to Costa Rica with Jake so it's totally OK.
• Was supposed to go out with Tessa and Sarah on Thursday night but I ended up staying at work a bit late and then going home to clean, organize and get a whole bunch of crap together for the 008 weekend. I was leaving right from work so I had to have everything ready, none of this----pack in the morning last minute shit.

OK, back to the 008 weekend. Lindsay picked me up from work right at 5 and then we drove uptown to pick up Bethy and then our adventures began. I was rainy and icey and just generally the worst weather possible to be driving for a bunch of hours. I finally made it out of the city and then began our tour of the Philadelphia area. Of course, since I was in charge for part of the way, we got lost. Finally we pick up Susannah in Philadelphia and then proceed to drive three more hours to Frederick. We were all so excited to be there and be together.

The first night we just drank wine, talked and lounged around. It was really nice to see everyone and talk about crap that we just needed to update each other on. We all eventually realized we needed to fall asleep. Then in the morning we woke up, took our GRAND old time and we all made breakfast. I was in charge of the bacon, Leah---the eggs and Susannah the pancakes. Carolyn made coffee and helped out with setting the table and everything. The food was so good and also---I was so jealous that CK had a griddle. It was awesome and I wish I had one. You can cook EVERYTHING on there. It was great! Then, we slowly took showers and headed out to the OUTLETS!!!!

I spent more money than I should but I got a whole bunch of really cool stuff so I don't feel that bad about it. The coolest thing I got were these two awesome pairs of shoes from Nine West Outlet, seriously, they were $40 bucks each, it was glorious. Then----I also snagged a pair of camo capris from the Gap Outlet that I've been wanting since I was born. I felt very happy with these purchases. I almost bought a suit from Banana but the jacket was weird an I didn't like that it had this extra pocket and stuff. So I only got the pants. I figure that I can get a suit jacket (it would be black) at one of the Banana stores here and be just fine.

We drove back home after a long day of shopping and relaxed for a bit until we had to head out again for our wonderful Indian dinner. It was so yummy. We were there for seriously three hours. The service was really bad but we didn't care too much b/c we loved hanging out with each other. Emily and her fiance Tom also live in Frederick (Susannah's sister) so she joined us for dinner as well. Then we went back to the house and proceeded to play loaded questions (with Christian!) for about three hours. It was awesome. Christian was such a trooper and he played awesomely and blended right into our raunchy discussions and gross antics. He was one of the girls....

Finally passing out----we woke up earlish, thre on clothes and then drove off into the sunset. And if my "into the sunset" I mean---drove to philly, and dropped off Sho and headed back to NYC. I took a nap in the back seat, since I'm not allowed to sit in the front, for about an hour, and then LB dropped Beth off and then me.

I cleaned my apartment a little bit, which was awesome. I found some mice poop and cleaned that shit up (pun intended) and also did the dishes. It was very nice. Then I headed down to Lb's to watch the Superbowl and chill. We ordered pizza and hung out and drank beer. It was fantastico.

OK---I think that's all the recap I can give.

Love,

Lauren