Chris's Graduation!

The day has finally arrived! After two years of hard work, Chris graduated from New York University with a Master's of Arts in Cinema Studies! Hooray!!!

Chris's mom flew in on Mother's Day and stayed through the week to attend graduation. It was quite possibly the worst May weather ever, but, despite the bitter cold, I think she had a good time. A little side note: she read four books while here...the Jaynes' reading ability never ceases to amaze me.

On Tuesday the 11th, Chris had a mini graduation (only 1,200 graduates) just for his college at Madison Square Garden called the Tisch Salute. Wednesday morning was the big NYU graduation at Yankee Stadium. We were so pumped about the graduation being at the new Yankee Stadium and hearing Alec Baldwin speak. But then the temperature plummeted to 45 degrees and it started raining.

So Chris's mom and I are now the proud owners of Yankees ponchos ha!

And we couldn't have been more relieved when we got a text from Chris that he was leaving after Baldwin's speech. At that point, we could barely feel our fingers! After graduation, a bunch of Chris's classmates and their families got together for lunch at Becco and enjoyed incredible all-you-can-eat pasta.

I am so proud of Chris for completing his master's degree and I can't believe how fast the time has flown by! Congrats Chris!

Russell and Renee Visit

Back in April, Russell and Renee came back to New York for a second visit at Hotel de Jaynes. Our AMAZING neighbors were away for the weekend and offered their apartment to us. It was incredible to have literally twice the space for the weekend. Whenever the Pattersons visit, we know that we will be eating well that weekend...they always know the good places to go! And this weekend did not disappoint.

We also enjoyed a lovely picnic in Riverside Park and saw the garden from You've Got Mail. We completely skipped over where Liz Lemon and Joe Fox live though...next time. Here's a cute picture of the Russell and Renee at Riverside.

Meal Planning Ugh

Chris and I both really enjoy cooking. However, meal planning...not so much. It is always "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know. What do you want?"

I keep telling myself that I am going to get better at this. I have tried several different things. We have a white board on the wall to keep track of meals...it has been known to keep the same meal plan for a month or so at a time. I even created a separate G-Cal for menu planning. But I never check my G-Cal, so that didn't work.

So...I'm going to attempt to blog it. This may be the only meal planning post ever. But who knows, maybe it will be my meal-planning savior. We shall see. Yeah, I procrastinated doing this for 2 hours.

Meals for the week of April 25 - May 2

Sunday: Mushroom Barley Soup

Monday: Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella Panini w/ Strawberry-Spinach Salad

Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken, Wild Rice, & Peas

Wednesday: Bean Burritos

Thursday: Pork Tenderloin w/ Baked Sweet Potatoes

Friday: Roasted Veggies w/ Chickpeas & Goat Cheese

Saturday: Freebie! Dinner with the Pattersons somewhere in the City

My Parents Visit!

My mom and dad came to visit over Easter weekend and we had a wonderful time! The weather was beautiful for once, although they were a bit disappointed to be leaving the 90 degree weather in SC.

On Saturday we ate at Grimaldi's and wandered about the new Brooklyn Bridge Pier 1 Park that just opened. That night we went to see a Behanding in Spokane, which I have to say I would definitely NOT recommend, but it was fun to see Christopher Walken at least.

Sunday we went to Easter services at Redeemer and then to the Easter bonnet parade on 5th Avenue. We ate very well Sunday...Hill Country BBQ for lunch and Enzo's for dinner. Mmmm Enzo's.

Monday we spent about 2 hours walking around Central Park, which was beautiful because everything had just started to bloom. Then we met Chris in Bryant Park and ate lunch in the park.

It was such a nice visit and I'm so glad that they decided to come back to NY!

Poor Panda

Today I was assigned the wonderful task of taking pictures in Lower Manhattan for work. I decided to give my legs a little rest and sat down on a bench in Battery Park. It was then that I witnessed this hilarity. The video is a bit small, but basically this kid comes up, hits the panda, runs around the statue, then comes back and makes some kind of ridiculous face. Poor panda.

Happy Birthday from John Stamos

For my 25th birthday, to ease the pain of the quarter-life crisis, Chris took me to see the Broadway play Bye Bye Birdie starring John Stamos. Like every other girl I know, I am a huge fan of John Stamos, going back to the Full House days. So, of course I was thrilled. The play was so fun and lighthearted and was a perfect end to the week. We were lucky we were able to see BBB, as it closed the following Sunday. Plus, we had great seats near the center of the theatre in about the fourth row.

After the play, Chris had the fabulous idea of going to the stage door to see if we could sneak a glimpse of John (Chris is such a great husband). We had to wait for about an hour, but he eventually came out and said hello, signed autographs, and whatnot. I told him something cheesy like "Thanks for making my birthday special." He looked at me and then yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He asked how old I was, and when I told him 25, he was like wow you look so young! It definitely helped to ease the pain of a quarter-life-crisis to hear that from John Stamos!

So thanks Chris for giving me the gift of Uncle Jesse :)

 

Two Months of Catch-Up

Two months have passed since I have updated this blog. So much has happened in that time: Thanksgiving, a trip to Boston, a great big blizzard, Christmas, New Years, and a ski trip. I simply cannot go back and blog about it all...so here it is, in eleven sentences.

1)The leaves in Prospect Park and all over the City turned happy shades of yellow and orange.

2)We flew home to South Carolina, ate turkey, spent time with friends and family, went shopping really early in the morning, and watched the Clemson/Carolina game.

3)We took a weekend trip to Boston with Russell and Renee in which we enjoyed walking around the historic city, sampling some cheese and tea, eating at the delicious Flour cafe, slushing through the snow, and spending time with great friends.

4)I did lots of Christmas shopping in the City including this trip to Grand Central and Penzey's.

5)All of the little lights in New York City were sparkling for Christmas.

6)Chris, Scott, Nicki, and I fell victim to the New York thing and went to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, which was...spectacular!

7)We said goodbye to our favorite German friend, Adrian.

8)And on the same night, we experienced our first blizzard in NYC...12 inches of snow in one night.

9)We flew back to South Carolina for Christmas to spend quality time with family relaxing, indulging in great food, playing Wii, fishing, and just having a generally great time.

10) We drove up to Greenville to see some dear friends from college.

11)We rang in the New Year with friends in Banner Elk, North Carolina where we were able to catch up with dear friends, attempt to snowboard, test out our new photography skills, break Andy's car, and avoid getting frostbite.