Do you like butter on your bagel?

Even if my adorable and gorgeous friend Jayme wasn’t the star of this Bravo!FACT short film, I’d still love it.

The film tells the story of a young couple dealing with their own form of “greed”, which takes the shape of a bagel – there’s only one left and Jayme doesn’t want to share. The two sing from their window sills until Jayme finds out her boyfriend has left her for Paul. Perhaps Paul is better at sharing?

[via: interminable, monotonous addition]

A comprehensive guide to yoga poses

I’ve been doing yoga for three or four  years now and consider myself an intermediate student, I’ve even got comfortable enough and familiar enough with the poses that I no longer try to wear my glasses during the class and do my thing blind as a bat. Lately, Nick and I have been taking an Ashtanga-inspired Vinyasa class where the instructor calls out pose names and walks around the class to watch us and help if needed, she rarely does the pose herself to demonstrate. I have them down for the most part, but every once in a while, I have to pop my glasses back on my face to look around and get a reminder of what a “half virasina”  or a name-much-longer-I-definitely-cannot-spell is. That’s why I love this “Honest Names for Yoga Poses” chart.

My favourites are “The Hand Giraffe” and “The Foot Penis”. If I was a yoga instructor, I might mix it up with some of these names, just to try and get a laugh out of my students.

(Via Someecards)

Dear 16 year-old me

Have you seen Canada’s The David Cornfield Melanoma Fund skin cancer campaign? It’s an impressively honest video featuring many very real people speaking about their experiences with melanoma. After watching this and getting emotional, I went out and bought Eucerin moisturizer with SPF 15 and face lotion with SPF 30. I highly recommend both for not only fighting skin cancer, but also for preventing the old-leathery-purse look those who love the sun, but hate sunblock often acquire. It just makes sense.

From the desk of Mark Zuckerberg

Now, this is right up my alley.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg commissioned designer Ben Barry to create some gorgeous stationery for him. I don’t know what’s more impressive – the bold and fun design or the fact that Mark Zuckerberg still corresponds by mail.

(Source: Design Work Life)

The Rapture

No, not the dance-punk band, but rather the most popular topic of conversation this past weekend. I don’t know anyone who took it seriously, but I felt, even though it was pretty preposterous, we Earthlings may have been a little cocky in feeling so sure that our lives weren’t coming to an end on Saturday at 6:00 pm. So how did you spend what could have been your last day on Earth? I had no regrets except for the fact that I didn’t actually spend time with Nick until about 6:00…

I spent the afternoon walking all over Williamsburg with Stu and Amy, vacationing from Toronto.

We walked in the sun and sampled a lot of food at the Smorgasburg Flea Market and a vegan bakery. We ended the afternoon by drinking beers in a backyard before we all decided we needed naps.

After Nick was Wikipedia-ing famous debaucherous writer, Henry Miller, I decided to find his old house in Williamsburg while I waited for Stu and Amy. I expected it to be much more run-down, but you can see it for yourself at 662 Driggs Ave. It’s actually quite nice.

When I returned home, Nick and I went up on the roof to watch the sun set on this supposed last day. It seems people everywhere in the neighbourhood had the same plan as there were end of the world BBQs everywhere!

Anyways, I’m glad we don’t have to worry about doomsday for another year and a half or so. I am due to spend more time with this guy:

Lately…

• It’s been quite rainy in New York
• I’ve had many Canadians to visit with
• I’ve been enjoying working freelance from home so much that I think  it would take a pretty amazing job to get me to work elsewhere
• I really appreciate the writing of Kurt Vonnegut
• I have only been going to yoga because my legs still hurt when I do cardio due to my old job. Thinking that I wasn’t meant to be athletic.
• I’ve been enjoying Suzie’s Naan Crackers. Indian food-flavoured crackers, people!
• Nick and I have been attending comedy shows at Caroline’s
• I’ve been getting nostalgic with the one year anniversary of my visa interview + four year anniversary of being together

.

What have you been up to lately?

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(photo found on prettystuff.tumblr.com)

Spring in Brooklyn

I was lucky enough to have a light workload this past Tuesday because it was a beautiful day in Brooklyn. I couldn’t help but take a long walk through Greenpoint and Williamsburg and snap some photos along the way.

An impatient pooch tied up outside The Garden

Overstimulated kids

Incredibly popular restaurant, Five Leaves

The old clock outside Peter Pan donuts

McCarren Park

McCarren Park’s pretty spring trees

Bikes on Bedford Ave.

I love cats – especially live ones!

In other Spring news, Kate and I attended the Seychelles & The Loved One Garden Party on Wednesday night and found yet another fun photobooth!

Flower crowns and bubbles and noisemakers, oh my!

What have you been doing in this lovely spring weather?

Gordie & Zyanna

Friends Gordie and Zyanna got married at Manhattan’s City Hall Marriage Bureau on April 29th! I stand by my claim that it’s a great place to get married and if I was given all the time in the world to plan a wedding, I’d just get married there all over again.

Isn’t Zyanna’s vintage dress gorgeous? Gordie’s hat isn’t too bad either!

Congratulations again, newlyweds!

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to my beautiful and lovely Mom. Living in another country is not ideal for occasions like these, but she knows I’m thinking of her <3

Four years of New York

It’s hard to believe that I had never been to New York until 2007. Ever since that first visit, I managed to come once a month for two years, then eventually* moved here.

The first time I came for a visit, I took a Greyhound bus with Angela. They were having a buy-one-get-one-free sale and our return tickets cost us something like $35 each. When you’re 25, have a fun roommate, and a portable DVD player (before iPods with video), taking an overnight bus for that price just makes sense.

We got in early that morning, but Angela’s friend (and soon to be my friend!) Courtney came to meet us at Port Authority to take us back to her place in Prospect Park. We showered, and I had my first taste of a New York style bagel**.

The three of us headed back in to the city. Courtney went to work, but Angela and I set out to do touristy things like visit the WTC site.

The subway system confused the hell out of me. I was used to Toronto’s actual direction system. You know, North, South, East, West? Not here! Forest Hills, Brooklyn Bridge, Queens – I had no idea! All the credit for not becoming permanently lost underground goes to Angela, even if we did have some scares followed by both of us having to pee really bad while having no idea where we were.

Courtney and Jesse were great tour guides. Their friend Bobby even came out with us to some of my favourite places like Coney Island…

… and Carrie Bradshaw’s house.

I know none of us will forget the night we drank vodka-Redbulls and got both drunk and hungover from caffeine:

The day of the caffeine hangover (far worse than any other hangover, kids – don’t do it!) the guy who would become my husband wanted to take Angela and I out and about in the city. After filling us full of Mexican food (my first trip to San Loco!) we had enough energy to travel. We visited CBGB’s skeleton and Joey Ramone Place.

And another one of my favourite places in the world, Central Park, where we visited Strawberry Fields.

Look how little and tattoo-less these two are:

It was nice to have the chance to visit the New York office of my then-workplace. I met a lot of people I had only spoken to on the phone or through email and putting faces to the voices was a lot of fun. Yeah, that office was pretty fun…

Talk about a monumental trip. Not only did I make new friends, but the beginnings of a relationship were starting to spark. I have to admit that my four day visit to New York did completely overwhelm me and I was happy to leave when we did, but it was also the moment my fascination with the city began.

Has anyone else out there had a life-changing trip?

Footnotes:

*after a lot of shit.

** Weeks later, I would become addicted and Nick would woo me with a shipment to my office in Toronto.