An open letter

Dear Everyone I Love,

I know I haven't been around much lately. And it's not because you smell (you do.)

It's just, it's football season, and if you didn't learn last year, that means I sort of drop of the face of the planet until February.

I know some of you are bristling. I don't call you enough. I ignore your attempts for contact. When you speak to me, I stare right through your face like I am listening, but I am most definitely not. And that's just my husband.

My hands are permanently attached to my keyboard and my computer has grafted itself to my lap. Even when I'm not working I find hard to get up from this machine. I try to catch up on my google reader, which calls to me with its numbers, guilting me for ignoring it, a failure of consequence. I die a little every time I "mark all as read."

I got out to NYC a few weeks ago, which you read about below. That was nice. I'm not sure I've seen the sun since, and considering this vampire stuff is hot right now, it probably just appears that I'm going for the trendy pasty white look.

I'm not unhappy. Quite the opposite. I love a challenge.

But I've failed you all. I think about you every day, about how I should call you, but I don't want to bore you with my one-note life. Please don't take it personally.

I miss you. And I'll see you on February 8th.

Love, Emily

If I can make it there, I'll make it...

I'm a week late in blogging, per usual, but I did have to say I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to NYC last week.

We got to the city (we drove in) around 11:30 in relative ease, and our parking garage was reasonably priced (for NYC) and we headed over to drop off our bags at our hotel and explore the city!

First of all, I'm not sure how people survived before smart phones because my iPhone was so helpful in helping us small town folk manuever the city. Urban Spoon led us to an adorable little well priced restaurant which of course I can't remember the name of. Jeff had some mini sliders and I had a brie and apple sangwich which was yummy. Our plan was then to walk to Central Park, but my head strong husband insisted that he was going the right way until we found ourselves on 25th street, most definitely heading in the wrong direction. So, of course, I was miserable, itchy leg had started, and we were facing a roughly 40 block walk to Central Park.

In an attempt to salvage the afternoon, Jeff suggested we take a bus, which was fine, and we wandered around Central Park, a place I'd never been despite numerous trips to the city. We attempted to find the "Imagine" circle, but had no luck. Finally, we decided to cab it back to the hotel and get ready for our big night out!

Our hotel, ACE on Broadway was a rec from my blogging buddy Jessica, who's friend Sean worked there and hooked us up with a deal. Well, I should say, I thought it was a deal from the get-go but when we got there, were told we were upgraded and actually saw our room we were BLOWN AWAY. Ch-check it out.

These pictures don't really accurately show how HUGE our room was as it had a separate bed/sitting/dining area and was probably close to 400 sq. feet. Everything was brand new and hipster and we felt a little bit swankier just by being there.

We didn't have a lot of time to drool over the room as we were meeting Jessica and her husband Jesse, as well as Zach of groomsman fame, over at Otto on 5th Ave. We decided to walk down there, which was fun, and when we got there the JMJs were already there. We said our hellos and my name is-es, and Zach arrived shortly later. Dinner was OK, but the wine came in a big glass and the conversation was great and I left the restaurant thinking, "Boy, I sure am in a good mood." You know what I mean?

Zach kindly drove us to Carnegie Hall where we saw.... Ricky Gervais!!! The dude who opened up for him was actually really funny, and Ricky's schtick was hilarious as usual. He closed the performance by singing "New York, New York" with... Elmo. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!! But that was not all...

Zach then picked us UP from Carnegie Hall, after Jeff and I got a quick dessert, to drive us to meet his lady friend Meg and his cousin and his wife (I should say while we were crossing the street to meet Zach we saw Dr. Drew. I always think a trip to NYC is never complete without seeing a minor celebrity). We then headed down to a bar on 4th street, where his cousin kindly bought us drinks and we had great convo and laughed ALOT, the hallmark to any memorable night.

Miraculously, I didn't get sick despite the copious amounts of rum and coke, so all and all -- it was one of the best nights I've had since we got married. Reminds me how much I love hanging out with my husband (we don't share any days off during football season), how much I love city life, how much I love hanging out with friends, how much I love food, drinking and laughing and how I deserve to treat myself once in a while.

I hope to do it again. Real soon, real soon.

Time capsule: Travel

Sometime in May 2005, I sat hunched over a small garbage bin in the sports department of the Boston Globe. I was dry heaving, gagging. The next day I was getting on a flight to California. I was so insanely nervous about the flight that I was making myself sick.

Taking it back a few weeks, I learned that I'd been accepted into a short conference in California run by the Los Angeles Times, in honor of Jim Murray, where about 25 college students across the country would gather to talk about sports journalism. Acceptance meant everything fully paid except the flight. It was an amazing opportunity I would have been insane to turn down.

But the flight. I hadn't flown since 2000, a band trip to Florida. I don't remember being nervous about that flight -- at least not in the same way I was nervous about this one. I'm not sure what changed in those five years, I'm sure September 11 had something to do with it, but it would be a cop-out to blame it all on that.

I couldn't sleep the night before the 6 a.m. flight, which I was thankfully taking with my best friend Katie. And of course, I made it there fine. I even flew back home solo, and a little kid fell asleep on my arm.

When I was in L.A. I met a girl who would later be a coworker, I was insulted by T.J. Simers, I toured Venice Beach and Hollywood and I learned that dropping Murray's name in conversation would be wildly valuable in future employment situations.

A month after I got back from LA, I flew to the Florida Keys with two of my girlfriends to visit our friend Florida. We had a great time. I saw Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Key Largo and Key West. While I was in Florida I realized that Jeff guy I had been on and off with was better suited to be on, and from the moment he picked me up from the airport we were never apart again.

In March 2006, Jeff and I flew to San Diego to decide if we wanted to live there. He held my hand on the flight and I told him I loved him for the first time. It was a great trip. We went to Sea World, to Mission Beach and we were in the audience for Jimmy Kimmel Live. It was our first vacation together and at the end of it, we had already found an apartment in San Diego.

In December 2007, Jeff and I flew down to South Carolina to see my mom's newly built house and be with family for Christmas. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but my mother has an amazing house she built with my aunt. It's her dream home, and mine too. It was the first Christmas Jeff and I spent together, and we had lots of family members there. We took a carriage ride of Charleston, made mudslides and enjoyed my aunt and mom's amazing cooking.

I took a break from flying for a while before our honeymoon in July. The anxiety came back, which didn't help compounded with the stress of a wedding. I went to the doctor and they prescribed me Lorazapem. That, the excitement of the trip and the pure happiness I felt got me through the flights. I don't need to recap what happened on my honeymoon in London and Scotland, I've written about it before, but it was probably eight of the greatest days of my life.

The nut graph here, which I've buried, is that some of the best moments of my life were on the other end of a flight. I'm sad to think that it ever held me back from doing something amazing, and I don't want it ever to again.

This is my first time capsule. I'm 26 and pushing through the temptation of a quarter life crisis. It's the first point in my life where I've had to push through and say, "OK, what do I want?" It's so easy to get in a rut, wake up in 30 years and think "What have I done?" It's a cliche fear. But I'm full of cliches.

So as I look forward into my life, I want my writing to hold me accountable. I have lots of goals. Writing is one of them. There are more that I'll put here and maybe look back in pride or shame someday. The first is travel.

Jeff and I are eying a trip to Italy sometime in 2011. It's our No. 1 travel goal. I want to make this happen. I will make it happen. I'm too young to let things get in the way already.

In the next 10 years I have Italy in mind, then Spain, France, Germany, Greece... Jeff wants to go to Ireland. I'll want to go back to London and Scotland again. We can't do it all in 10 years. We don't have to. But I'll have to get started. I don't want anything to hold me back.

Just because

I have a blog in mind for later, I swear, but for now I just need to have this on my blog.

Two weeks ago, Mad Men was craaaazy good. Best episode yet. Last night? Eh. I know it's setting up next week's finale, but I was bored. Betty has absolutely no chemistry with that old dude, Duck just makes me want to yack. I liked the JFK subplot, but I hated the romantic storylines. Also, as we can see from the above picture, there HAS to be more Joan. She needs to be back at Sterling-Cooper PLEASE.

Still: Best show on TV.