Attic vs. AirBnB

It's been a quiet Saturday of work, snugged away in the Attic, which while snug, sometimes is TOO snug -- especially when the neighbors are tromping away upstairs, your next door neighbor has decided to pull out his upright bass to work on scales (I mean, why?), and you would like to escape to another room ... Except, there isn't another room to escape to.

How lovely would it be to go outside and work, or an office, or to spread out on a lounging piece of furniture that is NOT your bed? Or to indulge in your favorite decor styles, or experiment - except ... you can't because it's snug?

Oh well. Since I didn't win the lottery to make this happen, I can pull out my photos from my recent New Year's trip to Long Island courtesy of Christine's very generously extravagant Christmas present, where we stayed in an out-wardly unassuming late 70/80s split-level ranch, which had been updated to a very lovely AirBnB, basically lifted from shelter magazines, and the pages of Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware.

Look at this beautiful back porch table. 

All the light. The room. The seashells.

(It was really hard not to pocket this blue hunk of crystal!)

Even beyond the hot-tub, fancy Kohler showroom bathrooms, the chrome kitchen, 

and the downstairs wet bar that is fancier than my entire kitchenette, 

 the three bedrooms mixed with my favorite blue and white, wood, and nickel finishes,

 or vintage school desk/beach cottage features, 

A dedicated OFFICE,

my dream entry wall, color schemes, finishes, salvaged stained glass, and beach-combed chic,

there were two places that I could have willing never left.

This lounger.

Doesn't it just invite you to spend an entire Saturday on it, 

reading, blogging, and/or sleeping?

EXCEPT ...

It looked directly at this assumedly vintage wooden advertising sign.

I love the graphics, but ...

it still irritates me for one HUGE reason.

 If you don't know why it irritates me, we can't be friends.

And then there was this couch in the "basement." 

The deepest leather couch I have ever had the glory to curl up in.

Next to the "fireplace," in front of the sharpest HDTV ever.

What with an all-weekend Downtown Abbey marathon, a wet-bar behind us, a bathroom within steps, the only thing to figure out was how to maneuver to the snacks and drinks when it was so deep. 

If you ever can't find me, maybe check that I haven't checked myself back into this AirBnB, or decamped to a Restoration Hardware showroom somewhere.

Who needs shelter magazines? A lot of THIS is exactly what I wish I could afford ... 

One day.

Okay. Enough dreaming.
Back to work.

AFTER I bang on my neighbors' wall in a very passive-agressive kind-of way.
 
 
~ photos by iPhone

Woozy from Weaving through Wave Hill

I'm still so tired from yesterday(?)'s red-eye, my body thinks it's MST, and I'm so so so far behind on catching up on my email. I thought one day of a buffer before hitting the ground running was enough, but no ... Ha! I should just know better by now.

Tonight is going to be late, even for me, even with my body thinking it's on MST. It's after 9:30 and I JUST started 4 loads of laundry.

I hadn't planned to be doing laundry so late. I hadn't planned to do anything but come home, finish unpacking, do laundry and REPACK for a 3-night stay at the office because of a weekend full of events - but some how I'm ending powering through jetlag.

Instead of coming straight home after work, I ended up representing the company at a Members Night with Christine at Wave Hill in the Bronx. It was so lovely to explore a cultural partners property in a different light, talk with random ladies and get restaurant recommendations, meet new contacts from our exclusive catering company, see how different companies deal with parking issues, get an unexpected meal, and see some great sights.

But I'm going to pay for this ... (I already am. I may have been weaving a bit by the end of the night. Thank goodness it was brisk?)

Enjoy the photos.

I'm off to deal with the laundry and keep packing.

So THAT's the name of the plants I have hibernating in my office over the winter. I had no idea. And they are succulents-esques. No wonder they are thriving NOW and not when they were outside.

 ~ photos by iPhone

Retroblogging: Life is a Journey, Eat More Birthday Chips, March 18, 2015

Celebration Number 3 for Mid-March had an International Flavor, literally.

I may have mentioned that this group of colleagues is more into savory or salty than sweet.

And with that in mind ... and this ... from 2011

did we plan our team celebration in honor of Christine's birthday with an Around-the-World Exotic Chip tasting afternoon.

Decor was much more subdued than our California Beach Party, because there was no way to anticipate the flavor selection that was going to show up when six ladies purchase a random assortment of chips. (We did have some veggies, dip, cheese, and fruit to off-set all the salt. Don't worry Surgeon General. We are slightly smarter than that.)

Life is a Journey. Eat more Chips.

If you think you can't see the table for the chips, you would be right. I lost track, but I THINK there were at least two to three bags per person there. (Our standing team is seven, but flexes to 10.) Forgive me if I sound like Bubba Gump, but we had:

Potato chips

Lentil chips

Quinoa chips

Sweet Potato chips

Corn chips

Micro chips

Some sort of air chip

Green bean chips

Plantain chips

Seaweed chips

Flavors ranging from plain to sour cream and onion, guacamole to maple bacon, Worcestershire flavored to onion and garlic, and lots in between, plus odd shapes to boot. 

We were supposed to try and pick our favorites - but we ended up grabbing and gabbing ....

(That blur is Karla, blocking me from getting to the jalapeno chips! She moves fast that one.)


Gabbing about ingredients and flavors and how it was probably better that couldn't read the truly international ingredients from the Asian markets. At least the crab shapes didn't taste like crabs. Some of the other ones did. Can you spot the mystery bag?

I think poor Christine has been on a juice cleanse since the chip party. That was a LOT of salt. We kept finding half-finished bags of chips for about a week. The rest of the office had to help us out.



Are you keeping track? Yes, that was three office parties in my office in six days. Did I get much done that week? No. Did I impose a fun moratorium in my space for a bit. Yes, I did. I mean, it's called WORK. Not party.

Though, I should call it MEETINGS, not work.

So many meetings.

Or 9hour email and Reply-All free-for-alls.

Sigh.

Email = bane of my existence sometimes.



*I was going to name this post: Tossing Your Chips-- which while hysterically funny to me, especially in the context of a party only attended by ladies -- PROBABLY wouldn't be the best thing for future blog searches.

Friends Don't Let Friends ...

Work is ... a bit ...

We'll go with busy these days.

And the weather is a bit ridiculous,

So, a nor'easter found me hunkering down with Christine for a series of sleepovers.

Along with grown-up tomato soup and grilled cheese, (lobster bisque and serious grilled fromage),

Which turned into a late-ish night purging collections of Christmas decorations, a tree-trimming, and repeat of our Christmas Tree skirt wearing from last year.

Things have been a bit silly from time to time this year, and luckily for me, Christine's been willing to go for it.

From being the Celery Queen 2014, harvesting the last of the Office Garden,

 

To creating new office Turkey Week traditions,

 

Thanks for the laughter and the funny e-mails and graphics, sweetie. 

~photos by iTouch, except for 1st graphic