Mother and daughter

Posted on May 8, 2012
Filed Under At Home, Daily, Family | 2 Comments

Mom: Do you wear lipstick?

Me: No.

Mom: Good, I’m glad.

Me: I can’t ever find a color that looks good on me.

Mom: Oh that’s pretty!

Me: This one?

Mom: That’s nice.

Me: Here, I’ll put it on.

Mom: Yeah that looks pretty!

Me: Yeah, it does, right?

Mom: Yeah! Get it!

Me: Okay!

Where are my shoes?

Posted on May 4, 2012
Filed Under Daily, Fashion Commentary, Style | 3 Comments

I don’t know! But that’s what I wrote about today.
Click HERE to read.

New York, we’re on our way!

Posted on April 30, 2012
Filed Under Daily, Friends, In Connecticut, New York, NYC, The Boss | 21 Comments

Some exciting news, you guys! The Boss and I are moving to New York!

Flashback to when I was in college…

“Aww!!! Wouldn’t it be awesome to live in an apartment in the city and be surrounded by little mom and pop shops and restaurants and have to dig under sofa cushions to find quarters for laundry?!?!”

Insert series of naive blinks, self-clutch and twirl. Now fast forward TO MY LIFE.

The Boss and I are coming up on our 4-year-anniversary (yay for love!) and my college “wish” has come true REPEATEDLY. We moved from Northern Virginia to Los Angeles to Southern Connecticut and now we’re headed to New York; quarters are valued second only to drinking water. Don’t get me wrong. These adventures with The Boss have been awesome, but all those years ago how come I wasn’t all “Aww!!! Wouldn’t it be awesome if I were rich and skinny and had the best job EVER?!?!”

Way to aim low, Enayatulla. WAY TO AIM LOW.

Most of you know that The Boss and I moved to Connecticut so he could open his company. We’d been talking about a possible move since December and by nothing short of God’s grace The Boss found a small office space just across the border. We’ll move in 5 weeks to a place about 25 miles outside of New York City. I guess you could say we’re “moving to the suburbs,” but that sounds a little pretentious. Really we’re just moving to a little city outside of a big city.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

I’ve wrapped up teaching at the center I’ve been at for the past year and now my days are filled with packing, writing and job hunting mostly. This is the current state of our bedroom.

On the wall? Oh yeah, that’s our box spring. The Boss and I have taken up the living room as our sleeping quarters while we move packed boxes into the bedroom. I think we’ve gotten pretty good at moving since we change cities roughly every 15 months and we both think that this move will be the easiest so far since we’re only moving about an hour away.

So I keep hearing in the news that the job market is getting better, but who knows if and/or how those statistics affect journalism directly. I’ve applied to several jobs online that I feel totally qualified for based on the position requirements posted, but a veteran professor told me that nearly SEVENTY PERCENT of jobs have already been filled with internal hires before the “openings” are even posted on line.

PROFESSOR SAY WHAAA?!

If that’s true I find it incredibly dishonest and misleading. I spent my Friday (about 10 hours) applying for jobs (8 in total) and so to even consider the possibility that more than half of those jobs already have a man and/or woman picking out their First Day of Work Outfits is a little, no, incredibly frustrating.

Or as bbf Tina would say, FUS-TRATING.

Now sure, the other side of that mostly-horrific tidbit of knowledge I received is at least companies will keep my resume on file (whatever that means), so I might be considered for other positions (whatever that means), but the irritation of the whole process still lingers. Applying to jobs after becoming aware that they’ve probably already been filled is like the equivalent of paying for invisible groceries.

Here’s your milk. That’ll be $4! Oh, you wanted to drink it? SIKE!

On the upside of things, when The Boss moved to his New York office he brought home his old desk chair, which I’ve been using for the past 2 weeks. I guess there are some perks being married to The Boss.

BAHA! Get it? Double meaning, what?! HA..ha..h…?

Moving on.

Last weekend The Boss and I drove out to his new office space to clean up and set up shop. And one of the the first things he did (right after he hung a photo of Magic Johnson) was hang an enormous Red Socks painting on the wall directly across from his office entrance. Did I mention WE’RE MOVING TO NEW YORK. Pick A for Incredibly Brave or B for Über Cray-Cray. (Pick C if Option B made you want to punch yourself in the knee). Maybe I should get him pepper spray.

I owe you guys an in-depth and uplifting update on my trip to Oprah’s Lifeclass Tour at Radio City (sorry Lesley!) but with the move, and looking for jobs, and preparing for the return of Slice of Lemon’s fashion series, and my poor, neglected manuscript I’m too tired to recall (in writing) all the beautiful things that happened that weekend. But if you follow me on Twitter then you saw my rapid fire of tweets during the live taping so you already have an idea of how awesome it was!

So I leave you with the last few weeks in photos:

Forever my guinea pig.

Orange chucks. Heck yeah!

Woot! Woot!

Hi Oprah!

Oprah with Dr. Deepak Chopra

Perez Hilton joins Lifeclass

Halal food trucks EVERYWHERE. Italian sausage sandwich. DROOL.

OH MY HOLY YUM! At Rice to Riches, 37 Spring St. NYC

Obviously.

Taking the train

I actually prefer “Mind the Gap.” The British had this one right.

Steak, biscuits and cream sauce

Posted on April 30, 2012
Filed Under Daily, In Connecticut, Let's Cook! | Leave a Comment

This was the meal I wanted to make, but I didn’t know where to get halal ground sausage and we didn’t have any ground meat in the house to make our own so I improvised a little. The meal turned out to be comforting and delicious thanks to a little help from these kitchen gurus.

Steak bites from Ree
Biscuits from Alton Brown
Cream sauce from Bobby Flay

Sidewalk intervention, NYC

Posted on April 30, 2012
Filed Under Daily, Friends, NYC | 4 Comments

I was in New York City with my friend Jodie a few weeks ago and on our way to catch the train back to Connecticut we saw this mural where people were painting. Well, not “painting” exactly, but throwing little cups of watercolor onto the canvas to create a street scape. So we joined in! Jodie threw the pink paint on the right (the blob and peace sign) and I threw the orange paint next to it (looks like a pray-mantis).

I took a few steps back to ensure I wouldn’t get paint all over my clothes and also looked around to make sure I wouldn’t get my color on any of the other participants. And then I THREW PAINT ALL OVER SOME GUY’S FACE. I was in such complete shock that when the man turned toward me and I saw ORANGE PAINT DRIPPING FROM HIS EYEBROW I didn’t even apologize. I think I was in denial that I’d done that! Actually, I’m certain I was in denial because in my head I was blaming his 11-year-old daughter who was staring at me aghast.

I was standing next to a stack of napkins, but instead of profusely apologizing and then GETTING HIM NAPKINS I just stood there. I felt bad, I didn’t want to get stabbed, and I also wanted to laugh. There was a lot going on in my head. Finally the guy goes, “Oh, it’s okay” and then the events of the last 35 seconds came together and I heard myself say, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”

Luckily, I didn’t get stabbed and when I got home and told The Boss what happened I was consumed by hysterical, make-yourself-cry laughter. I guess it was the kind of thing that’s funny after the fact.

Left: my pray-mantis. Right: Jodie’s peace sign.

As if this little Fun Station couldn’t get any better turns out We, The People were part of an experiment about social behavior and the masses for Kaavya Jayapratap’s (right) master’s thesis. Her classmate Joann (left) was taking photos of those who decided to break for a moment, which was exactly the point of the experiment; both ladies attend Parsons. Simply put, Kaavya wanted to find a way to get people in the busy city to stop, or at least slow down. Well, they got us to slow down! Though I can’t say for certain that Paint Face will be involving himself with anything like this again soon.

The thesis show will take place at Parsons on May 6, at 7 p.m. at 2 W 13 street Kellen Gallery and will run through May 19. For more information about this project visit Urban Speed Bumps or visit their facebook page.

The best swim cap

Posted on April 30, 2012
Filed Under Daily, Style | 4 Comments

This is what I wear when I go swimming at the community center. No, this isn’t ALL I wear. Gross, you guys. Kids PEE in there. So I also wear goggles.

Zoot Silicone Swim Cap, $9 at REI.com