I Love Me Some Dinner Parties

Honestly, we all know how much I love going to dinner whether it's out to a new restaurant or over to someone's home. Dinner parties of all types are awesome and I get excited just thinking about them. My friend, An, knows how much I love cooking and she'd recently told me about her friend, Daniel, and how I'd go bananas if I ever saw his kitchen. Well, it just so happens that he decided to throw a dinner party for some friends and he warmly extended the invite to me through An.

First off, Daniel's apartment is just gorgeous. I'd never seen something like it before in how unique the architecture and design was. An was definitely not joking about his kitchen, either. It was amazing. I am waiting ever so patiently for the day when I finally have a big, open kitchen. Oh, to dream... Anyway, Daniel was really gracious in welcoming me into his group of friends and it was truly so generous of him to throw this dinner party for everyone.

During his travels to New Zealand recently, he'd befriended the chef of a restaurant he loved and they've stayed in touch since. He actually hired him to cook for us since he was going to be in town and I thought it was such a fun idea. While Chef Michael got things started, we all mingled and got to know one another over fabulous wine:

I had fun taking some photos of Chef Michael while he worked. Just check out that meat:

I mean, yes please.

We had such a nice time over the course of the night. It turns out Daniel is from Atlanta and two of his friends there grew up with him so it was fun talking about our old stomping grounds. It was really neat hearing different stories and getting to know some great new people:

 Love me some An:

When it was finally time to eat, we were presented with tremendous prime rib, pan potatoes and roasted tomatoes with homemade onion jam:

It was all delicious and such a treat. For dessert, Michael had done a fresh cherry tart that was so light and summery:

What a lovely evening with lovely people. I felt so lucky to be invited and I really hope I'll be asked to come back sooner than later. ;)

The Power Of Word Of Mouth

It's tough to believe that I'm into five weeks of marathon training already. I started a little earlier than my marathon pro friends due to a knee injury last December. I wanted to be smart and take each run slow and steady. I was actually quite worried about my knee training in new shoes as I haven't deviated from my one brand for years. I think that's why I have an elevated level of excitement about how amazing my 890's feel. I am genuinely thrilled to have found such an awesome shoe that also does not poorly affect my knee.

All of this said, I've been raving about the 890's to anyone who will listen and not get sick of me, ha! Well, it turns out that the power of word of mouth can be pretty darn effective when you reach the right people. As an aside, I'm quite lucky to be plugged into a solid community of very active people which keeps me both challenged and motivated. I'd wanted to be involved in a group like that for a long time because the same old routine of happy hours and the like gets pretty old. I've always been a very determined individual and, after adding serious cycling to my list of activities, I met several people that have been amazing and become close friends of mine. We try to get outside weekly with each other to bike or run and we even have a variation of a "pushup club" that we do daily which has been awesome. Of course, this crew was my first target when I wanted to share my excitement about the new shoes!

I told them all the specifics of the shoe but I stressed that the lightweight nature did not at all affect the support. That's the most important thing, in my opinion. It turns out a couple of my cycling friends were in the market for new running shoes so they hit the store to try them on and, next thing you know, I get this photo:

My friend, An, took the photo from my original post and did a little adjusting, heehee. She and our friend, Angie, each bought a pair almost immediately after trying them out. I got so excited and had to share that with you all here today. What's really great is that An will be running the San Francisco Nike Women's half marathon in October in her flashy New Balance kicks. I love it!

The Ride to Montauk

A 'century' in cycling terms means a 100 mile bike ride. It's also code for something I never thought I could do. You couldn't have bet me on my first day out in clipless pedals that I'd ever grow confident enough to ride the way I do now. Though my interest in the sport over the past three years has been great, I had a huge fear of riding on my own. I got my very first road bike in 2009, a beautiful gift from a friend, and I put a bit of extra money into it myself, as well. I'd decided to go ahead and switch out the pedals so I'd learn right off the bat how to clip in and out which is the best decision I could've made. I'll never forget falling right over in the first five minutes I was on it and I kept thinking I'll never ever get the hang of this. Well, fast forward to the present, and I'm a radically different person on the bike. I have to giggle even at times when I think about what a process it can be to overcome fear. I think the greatest lesson is learning to not take yourself or things so seriously and to simply try. Just remember how to breathe, take things one step at a time and see what happens. More often than not, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

On that happy note, back to the cycling. Since I've been riding so much, especially lately, a couple of cycling buddies threw out the idea of doing Ride to Montauk together. There are various mileage options you can pedal but we decided on the 100 mile route since most of us had never done a century before. We all signed up and, on June 18th, we hit the road for what would be one of the greatest, most adventurous, hilarious, bonding and memorable days for all of us.

I have to briefly mention the day prior to riding where me, Cristina, Ginna and An volunteered in order to get our ride entry free. It was seriously the most ghetto operation in history. Not only that, it was literally hard work. We loaded trucks for six hours and, if not for the hilarity that always ensues when we're together, we might have lost it. Numerous times. I love our naive smiles before the day begins:

I mean, ghet-to:

Enough of that. Soon enough, ride day got here and we were all excited! We met at An's apartment building just before 4am (this would most certainly be the start of our adventure) and off through Times Square we went on our way to Penn Station. I have to say...it was uniquely cool to be riding at that hour and to realize that we truly do live in the city that never sleeps:

We met the rest of our group at Penn, got our bikes loaded on the truck and jumped on the train to Babylon which is where our official 100 mile start would begin. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, too. We saw the sun come up on the train which was really neat and we were hanging out having coffee while we waited on our bikes to arrive, all before 7am:

By 7:30am, we hit the road! We were all in amazing spirits and each of us was ready to kill it. It truly was awesome riding along such a beautiful route as the sun was just getting a little higher in the sky:

Our first rest stop was really soon into the route at 25 miles and none of us really needed to stop. However, it was right at the beach so we had to check out how neat that was:

We got back on the road and wouldn't you know that Blue Point Brewery was just two short miles away. Wouldn't you also know that, even at 9:00am, they were up and running full swing offering free beers to cyclists. Um, that's only a little up my alley...! So, we had another lovely pit stop tasting delicious beers and cracking each other up, as usual:

We had to make ourselves be responsible and get back on the bike before our full century stayed at a quarter century. We proceeded to ride one of the most beautiful routes alongside the water, past flowers and stunning homes, and we had smiles on our face the whole way:

Around mile 75, we finally approached the rest stop that had the infamous homemade pie we'd kept hearing about. An and I had just come down from catching onto the wheel of some speed demons so I'm hugely disappointed to say that I was in no mood for pie when we stopped. I was solely concerned with gatorade and breathing but I made myself try at least a bite because I'd looked forward to that the most the entire time. It was delicious:

As we got back in the saddle to finish those last miles, An and I ran into that same speedy group again. We looked over at each other with that "let's do this" smirk and we caught their wheel a second time. We powered through the next 12 miles at a solid 25 miles an hour and, at that late point in our ride, we were both SO proud of ourselves. We came around to a final tough climb at the end (arrrrgh!) and we both rolled into the finish together feeling pretty darn amazing. By the way, it was 106 miles and not 100. Liars!

Sadly, our high quickly came down when we learned that a) the crap organization ran out of BEER (what?!?!) and most of the food and b) our girl, Cristina, flatted out with just four miles left to the finish. Luckily, the rest of our awesome crew was there with her to help get her back up and running. Those girls kick some serious ass:

When we finally regrouped, we had to break the news to the girls that there were no celebratory beers which was seriously heartbreaking. Yeah, you think I'm kidding. I'm not. However, we all stopped then and there to recognize the awesome day we'd had and it totally didn't break our spirits. That's about the time that An walks up out of nowhere with mysterious ice cold Coronas and it was like angels were singing:

Yod-An, our savior. She'd walked around and found a little place selling beers and took care of us all. I don't even like Corona but it was the best beer I'd ever had, ha. We still had to wait on the train back and all of us were truly exhausted at that point. You can certainly tell:

It was also pretty trippy to watch the sunset from the train since we'd seen the sunrise together, too:

We got back to Penn Station around 11pm and I wish I could say the night ended on a positive note. Unfortunately, due to very poor organization, we had to wait another 45 minutes for our bikes to arrive and our fatigue was getting the best of us. I'm extremely proud to say that none of us lost it, though. We kept up the positivity for as long as we could but it wasn't easy. It was after midnight when we all finally got our bikes and parted ways. After starting our day at 3:30am, I can tell you that I was dead to the world. So, when I got a terrible flat riding home on Park Avenue, that was just the last straw. I had a good cry as I walked my bike the rest of the way home because, at that point, I think I just needed to vent and that was my way of doing so.

Regardless, we had the most terrific day together. It's amazing when you laugh so hard while riding that you really almost crash. These girls have become dear to me and I couldn't have imagined a better crew to spend nearly 24 hours with. We all bring something so different to the table and it makes for a truly special, unique, rare group and I treasure it. We've been riding hard together since and have no plans of slowing down. I'm a very lucky gal to have these women in my life and I'm excited for what I know will be continued shenanigans to come.  

An Evening with Glen Hansard

This city is chock full of the coolest things to do, I swear. As New Yorkers, you often overlook the really amazing events going on right under your nose and I'm thankful that my friend, An, actually enjoys scouring the city for unique and different happenings. A couple of weeks ago, she found out that Glen Hansard was doing a show at The Met and I thought that just sounded so cool. I asked Allison if she'd be interested so the three of us ladies had an exceptional visit to Ireland for a day. ;)

When we got to The Met, it turned out that our ticket got us access to the guitar exhibit as well so we decided to check it out first. Oh my gosh, it was amazing! Some of the craftsmanship on these guitars was outstanding and so beautiful. We browsed around for quite a while in awe of the designs and shapes of some of them. During my two years of guitar lessons, I never got tired of learning about the history of these instruments and just how intricate and detailed they are. It was an awesome exhibit to see.

When we went back upstairs for the show, we had no idea it was taking place in the Temple Room OR that Harpoon was sponsoring the entire thing! It was the freaking coolest setup and all three of us couldn't get over how unexpected it was. We drank delicious Harpoon summer ale and enjoyed such a beautiful concert. His song 'falling slowly' is just so lovely and, when he performed that, it felt really reverent when you combined it with our surroundings:

It was definitely a great experience and right in my neighborhood, no less. Afterward, An and I went for all you can eat sushi at Yuka (seriously the best I've ever had in this city, no joke) and rounded out a really fun evening. :)