Sick Day...

Just a friendly reminder to WASH YOUR HANDS every chance you get. Because right now, I'm home with pink eye. 

Yuck.

Be well everyone!

Battle of the Darcy's

I know, I know. I broke my "post every day for thirty days" rule... but it was for your own good. I refuse to let this blog wither into inane blathering, which is surely what it was going to come to if I didn't take a short hiatus. Besides, doesn't absence make the heart grow fonder?

__________________________________________________

Stacks upon stacks of clean laundry are currently sitting in my room waiting to be put away. As my Monday nights are typically void of any obligations, last night would logically have been a great night to tackle that. A little stop by the gym first shouldn't have gotten in the way of that, right?

Wrong. Because on a whim I decided to attend a boot camp class. If you know me at all, you are laughing right now.

Needless to say that when I got home, I was good for nothing more than tossing a frozen pizza in the oven and collapsing on the couch with my roommates to catch the last half hour of Pride and Prejudice on television.

Now like millions of girls across the world, I claim Pride and Prejudice to be among my very favorite books and movies, Elizabeth Bennett among my favorite literary heroines. And wherever two or more true Austenites gather, immediate lines are drawn on the following debate:

1996 Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice miniseries vs. 2005 Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice feature film

Each has its merits, and I could discuss these at length, however, only two words are truly necessary for a solid defense of the first: Colin and Firth.

Honestly, though, despite its smattering of inconsistencies with the original text, it's the second one that captures my heart over and over again. Between the captivating cinematography and the beautiful soundtrack, I just get lost in it every single time. So with the following clip, I rest my case:

I meant to go to the gym...

I really did. But it wasn't where the website said it was supposed to be! So I really had no choice when I couldn't find it other than to come home, cook dinner, and pop in disc one of the HBO John Adams miniseries. Initial review in a nutshell:

Really interesting point of view on our nation's birth. It makes you appreciate the fact that we are a nation at all when you realize how close we came to not having independence at all.

Also, Abigail Adams was pretty wonderful.

"We have too many high-sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them."
-Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

Gleek Out

I love Glee. Love it. Enjoy:

A Little History Lesson

I've been on a documentary/biography/history kick lately, so today when I was deciding what to put at the top of my Netflix queue I finally boosted the HBO miniseries on the life of John Adams to the top. It arrives tomorrow, so I will be sure to let everyone know how it is. 

Living in a part of the country that is so rich in history, it just feels like a shame to not spend at least some time finding out about it. PBS came out with a fantastic documentary series on New York in 1999 and we (the roommates and I) have been watching it in several installments. Last week we learned about the Lower East Side tenements and the heartbreaking poverty that went on exactly where we live today.

Equally as amazing to me as the profound progress that has occurred here is how much some things have stayed the same. The Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, even the grid that lays out the city, all have remained relatively unchanged over time and I just love that! So for anyone interested:

New York: A Documentary Series

I recommend it!

Holiday Gift Guide

I've never been one known to get my holiday shopping done early, but this article in Real Simple makes me want to this year. They have great ideas for everyone on your list!

Real Simple Holiday Gift Guide

One of my personal favorites on the list? These pretty, re-covered Penguin Classics. ($20 each, penguingroup.com) 

Happy shopping!

I Recall Central Park in Fall...

Today was one of the most gorgeous days so far this fall, and on a day like this there is only one place to go. Central Park was completely breathtaking and prime for people-watching:

I hope that we get many more days like this to enjoy before winter sets in! This was such a great weekend and I plan on enjoying it to the last drop before Monday rears its ugly head tomorrow. :)

Lazy Saturday

This is the first weekend in a long time that I have made plans to not make plans and it feels pretty great. I would normally avoid inane posts like this that just tell a lot of nothing, but I'm taking this 30 days of blogging thing pretty seriously!

You know it's a good day when you shower and then put your pajamas right back on. I think I can, however, force myself to get dressed in order to meet friends for dinner. :) 

Happy weekend, everyone!

(And just for giggles:)

5 Things I Love

And so what if they all happen to be from Anthropologie? I just got the new catalogue. Gets me every time.

In other news: I saw my first holiday commercials of the season last night. You have no idea how hard I've been fighting the urge to start listening to Christmas music since then! Of course it doesn't help that twinkling lights are already going up everywhere around the city.

Let the holidays begin!!

Money Money Money

It's not exactly news that we live in troubled economic times, but in some ways I think the tumultuous economy has helped bring everyone back down to earth in terms of personal finance. For the first time in a long time, people are learning the value of living within your means and just saying no to unnecessary debt!

After my first year on the little adventure I like to call "financial independence," I just wanted to share one of the best tools I've found for helping me manage my money. The best part? It's free.

Allow me to introduce you to my friend:

This website links to all of your online bank accounts, credit cards, savings accounts, investments, and even loans to help give you the best snapshot possible of your personal financial health. A few of my favorite features:

• Budgeting tool
• Automatically imports all of your transactions
• Categories for your spending and income that you can customize
• At-A-Glance Insights: Charts and graphs galore to show you where your money goes, your net worth, how your habits are changing over time, etc.
• Ways to save: Mint takes a look at your overall finances and tells you how much alternate banks, credit cards, savings accounts, etc. could be helping you save money every year
• Alerts you when unusual spending takes place or when bills are due
• iPhone application makes it easy to use and access on the go

It's as safe and secure as any U.S. financial institution and comes highly recommended and recognized by BusinessWeek, Money Magazine, you name it.

Just my two cents. :)

Spotted: Gossip Girl Filming

Hey there Upper East Siders (or just my readers)...

A few months ago Gossip Girl was filming near my apartment in SoHo and I never shared the pictures. Selfish, I know. This episode aired a few weeks ago and it was so weird to watch it- like a very fabulous case of deja vu.

This scene featured Dan, Blair, and Vanessa who was making out with long-lost half-brother of former flames Serena and Dan (classic GG story line).

Enjoy!

XOXO,

Gossip Girl

One More Chance?

So I hear from my dear friend Bethany that November is National Blog Posting Month (fondly referred to from this point forward as NaBloPoMo). Upon reading about her commitment to post every day for just one month, I was immediately convicted about my own pathetic lack of posting and basic abandonment of my own sad little blog.

30 days... Surely I can do this? I have a backlog of pictures and subjects I have been meaning to blog about, so this is my golden opportunity to get caught up! Starting now:

Every day on my walk to work, I pass the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue (you know, the one actually on 5th Avenue?). The window displays are always gorgeous, but recently they had a Chanel display that I loved so much I actually suppressed my fear of looking touristy for a few minutes and took some pictures:

They had set it up to look like a fabulous black and pink vintage train and some of the cars were cut away so that you could see into them. Several car windows (like the one above) were playing scenes from the movie "Coco Before Chanel" which at the time hadn't yet been released.

I still haven't seen this seemingly delicious movie, but it is definitely near the top of my list! (Ah, the list... perhaps that will make a good post for another day this month?).

For all its reputation of being such a hard city, sometimes New York just has a way of sending you little love letters that melt your heart and this was definitely one of those times... le sigh.