10 Days in New York, part 2

The second part of my trip to New York involved leadership training for work approximately 1 hour north of the city. As soon as I got to the campus, I immediately felt calm. The ambiance of  campus was completely opposite of what I felt in New York City. I felt like I was rushed every second of every day in the city, even though I didn’t really have anywhere to be. But at Crotonville, the nature sucked me in :)

This tree is the most action I’ve gotten in months. I always like to take the tree-hugger picture. Because, well, I love trees. And they are just so darned comfy to hug!

I don’t know what this is, but apparently I took a picture of it.

This is the white house, where they have a bar, pool, and assorted games. Secretly, though, it’s not so white. It’s more yellow in tone.

This tree is GORGEOUS!

This is the banana boat that we so aptly named during class.

Being the Lighting geeks that we are, we noticed that the fluorescent lamps in the classroom were two different colors! Pinkish and blueish. Thank you, camera, for catching this anomaly.

Some panoramic views of campus OR how Nidhi learned to play with the panoramic settings on her camera.

Another lighting anomaly. Oh, does the horror never end??

 

Crotonville is an incredible place. I can only hope that one day, I will return.

10 Days in New York, part 1

I left for New York on Saturday morning. I had booked a flight for 8am, thinking I would get into the city when it was light and it would be easier to find my way around. Of course, I neglected to realize that this would mean leaving my apartment for CLE at 5am. I also neglected to realize that walking to the RTA station at 5am is very, very sketchy. So I called a cab company (twice! after they didn’t show up the first time) and they never showed up! Luckily, at that exact moment, a fire alarm happened in my apartment and everyone needed to evacuate. A nice, sleepy couple offered to drive me to the RTA station and I arrived to the airport, and then NYC safely.

My first two days in NY were very touristy. Here are some pictures to prove it!

This is the library with some very nice lions outside. It’s so gorgeous inside with some fabulous architecture and a great view of many buildings. I don’t know how anyone could get anything literary done in there without being distracted!

At Bryant Park, someone put a bunch of paper sailboats saying they needed to sail to Madison Square Garden (whose initials end up being MSG, hehe). We didn’t take one, because we didn’t think we would end up anywhere near Madison Square Garden (or maybe I just don’t know the streets of NYC) but we did end up by Madison Square Garden. Oh well. I hope they ended up at their destination.

Chipotle is ubiquitous in the City. I liked this one that had “Chipotle” graffiti-d outside of the restaurant.

In Ann Arbor, MI, there is a cube outside the student union. When I walked out of the subway at Astor Place, I was so surprised when I saw this cube. It’s very similar to the Cube in Ann Arbor, except it doesn’t turn quite as well. Then after dinner at Astor Place, I couldn’t find my way back to the subway.

 

I found me some bears at Central Park!

And having a picnic in a park is crossed off my list. With homemade guacamole, a fruit salad, and bread with goat cheese, this was a very tasty picnic on a very hot day.

A boxspring at, around, or near Park Ave was spouting off words of wisdom (and a drawing of a fish?). Maybe one day I will take its advice. I can’t really tell, though. Becoming your dream equals becoming a fish? Or maybe the Greek letter alpha in lowercase?

Sometimes open letters are poorly written

With the leftover vodka that I had from the limoncello, I decided to make mint-infused vodka.

I let it marinate for two weeks. It wasn’t difficult, considering I was in New York and completely forgot about it until yesterday night! I was rooting through my fridge for a snack (running outside in 90+ degrees with overwhelming humidity can make a girl stupidly hungry) and I found the jar that I had used to store the vodka. I thought, “Well, crap, I have to make the liqueur right now. It is imperative.”

I also added a simple sugar syrup to make it sweet (because that’s what sugar does – it makes things sweet.)

In India, a popular type of cuisine is called “Indo-Chinese.” It’s basically India’s take on Chinese food. One of my favorite dishes is Hakka Noodles, which I attempted to make. A funny story about hakka noodles – my aunt knows that I love hakka noodles, and her English ain’t so great. We were all in India about to go out to eat, and she asked me if I wanted to eat “hakka needles.” So now, it’s ingrained in my head. Every time I want to say hakka noodles, “hakka needles” comes out!

I sautéed broccoli, celery, carrots, and tofu (the carrots and tofu first, since I wanted the carrots to be softer and the tofu to be crispier) in a little bit of oil and soy sauce.

Simultaneously, I cooked thin spaghetti whole wheat noodles.

Then, I mixed them together with soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and a dash of vinegar and… apparently forgot to take a picture of that. It tasted really good, I promise. 

And more on LeBron dropping LeBomb (yes, I made that up) – Dan Gilbert, the majority owner of the Cavaliers, wrote an open letter to fans. In the Cle, who is getting more press: Dan or LeBron?

Happy Birthday Etsy! (and a slightly boring blog post)

This post is long overdue. I’m not saying happy birthday to my Etsy, which I swear I’ll open soon…as soon as I get a bunch of other stuff done. Etsy turned 5 on June 18, 2010, so people around the country (and maybe the world?!) decided to throw a party!

I went to a party being held in Sagamore Hills, OH bearing cookies and some yarn for the stash swap. I got there late (thank you, Whole Foods wine tasting!) and walked onto the patio.

There was a woman doing a demonstration about how to solder (pendants, not circuits!). What a departure from my work-life. We talk about solder joints there, but that’s within LED circuits. It’s cool how soldering irons can be applied to arts and crafts. I want to get one now, though I don’t know what I would solder.

We then got a tour of the house where the party was being held. The hostess had a craft room of sorts, and her craft items were decorated so gorgeously!

I also got to make a really cool design on a ceramic cup, thanks to people bringing in ceramic markers. I don’t think anything I’ve freehanded has turned out as pretty! I love peacock feathers. This one time, I was at a bridal shower and there were peacock feathers at every guest’s place setting. At the end of the party, some older women decided to trounce around the room and grab all the peacock feathers. My mom and I looked at each other in disbelief. It was kind of strange. Oh well.

Oh yeah. LeBron announced that he is leaving CLE for MIA. I wonder how long it will take the City to remove the poster of him downtown.

Breakfast Foods and Nighttime Beverages

Bagels are so super delicious. I love waking up on Saturdays and eating a bagel laden with cream cheese. I also love drinking chai on Saturdays, but that’s a topic for another time. Or we can talk about it now! My daddy makes the most fabulous chai. Every time I drive back to Michigan, I call him 10 minutes before I get home so that he’ll have chai ready. Of course the chai is never ready because he doesn’t start it until I reach home.

Anyway, I made bagels. Once I perfect a recipe (these weren’t super stellar) I’ll post it on here so you can go off and have your own bagel making adventures!

They even tasted good with cream cheese!

I also completed another item on my 24 before 24 list! I made limoncello.

I had 90% of a bottle of vodka (Smirnoff, only the highest quality for Nidhi) and 5 lemons.

I zested the lemons (but not the rind! that apparently makes it very
bitter) and soaked it in the vodka for 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks, I strained the lemon peels out of the vodka (using my chai strainer!) and the vodka was left infused with lemon. It turned out so nice and yellow!

In order to make this into a liqueur, I added approximately 1 cup of simple sugar syrup – 1/2 cup of sugar boiled with 1/2 cup of water.

Ta-dah!

Also, I’m sure you’ve heard of the “Stay in Cleveland, LeBron!” campaign going on currently, so thanks to Betty White for this.

Visit to the Farm!

My friend/ex-neighbor Genevieve (from the creeptastic sorority house where I accidentally lived) is originally from the CLE area, so when she was back here to do some wedding planning, she invited me I invited myself to her parents’ house south of CLE.

It ended up being very farmy, which is soo exciting!! The barn was awesome. Genevieve’s younger brother Isaac is in 4-H, so the barn was full of chickens, sheep, and a cow.

Once in the barn, Genevieve was really excited to show us how to flip a sheep. Now, I’m not entirely sure where you would use this skill but if she were in a sheep-flipping contest, she would probably win.

Some of the younger chickens in the coop outside. They were thirsty and their water rationing machine was a modern marvel of engineering.

There was even an outhouse, with separate men's and women’s toilets.

We took a picture of ourselves chewing on Timothy Grass. My eyes are closed and Genevieve had just gone running, so this is a pretty stellar picture of us. Isaac looks like a champ, though.

Aaaand their dog. Isaac decided to take my camera and take pictures of whatever he saw fit. This picture of their dog turned out beautifully! I sneezed a lot because I’m semi-allergic. But it was soo big and cute that I couldn’t resist petting it.

Made in the two-one-six

Made in the 216, a Cleveland art/designer show is happening now! According to the website, it was “was created by Danielle DeBoe to prove the viability of Cleveland as a place in which to base your creative endeavor through events that highlight a curated assortment of goods designed right here in Cleveland.” What a cool concept!

Here is the local news surveying the “breaking news” scene (Their van said breaking news, but it’s not really that breaking since I think it has been public knowledge for quite a time).

They also had a local photobooth to take pictures wearing some silly costumes. Janet’s reaction to me saying that I would put this picture on my blog: “Your readers are going to say, ‘Find someone new to take pictures of!’”

It's happening right now at the Near West Lofts at W. 65th and Detroit. It's also happening tomorrow 11am-10pm.

Tyra taught me everything I know

As you know, faithful readers of my blog, number 13 on my “24 before 24” list is to audition. Straight up audition. And that’s exactly what I did yesterday.

I was browsing my local metromix site and saw that there is a local fashion show that was holding auditions at Pickwick and Frolic on E. 4th downtown. So I decided to audition!

Here’s the stage I walked on.

I was wearing the silver heels that you saw in my last post and the outfit I wore to work.  I walked really fast, and I smiled. I don’t think they’ll pick me. All the girls that I met there weren’t there on a silly blogging whim but were actually part of the Cleveland modeling circuit and knew each other.

I learned that the metromix cleveland site is run by three people, and two of them were at the event!

Here is 2/3 of the metromix team and a model being photographed.

Erica, one of the metromix girls, got bored and so I told her to drop and give me twenty. I swear, this is the first time that anyone has actually dropped and given me twenty when I asked. :) She claims that she is going to help me reach my goal of a 5k in 30 minutes, though I’m sure that no one can make that happen…

The other metromix girl, Janet, is a budding dry-erase artist.

 

And me? Maybe one day I’ll be ready for my close-up. Though I hear twenty-three is the tail end of a modeling career :) Isn’t it funny how I just wrote a post about me auditioning to be a model, yet there are no pictures of me?!

PROMapalooza

This past Saturday, there was a United Way fundraising event in downtown Cleveland called PROMapalooza. Since I didn’t have much fun at my high school prom (they didn’t have a vegetarian entrée, I was starving, yo), I decided to give it a second go.

Here are our beautiful tickets against the window. I took not-so-many pictures at the actual event, so this picture makes it onto the blog.

My date and I danced the night away with some silhouettes!

My beautiful silver shoes gave me some nice blisters that night (walking a mile in these shoes is not pleasant. However, I didn’t get hit by any cars due to the reflectivity of the sequins!).

And I think Eric wanted this picture posted real bad. I have no idea why. Definitely not for usage as his new facebook picture. Too bad it’s blurry!! :(

Being sassy with the sassy silhouette. I guess Eric doesn’t know how to stick out his hip that well…

I’m not sure what was more fun…this prom or my high school prom. Interestingly enough, though this was called “Southern Swing,” there were few dancers on the dancefloor. The music was mostly danceable, though it wasn’t really what I’d consider “swing”. I will dance at basically anything once I have a drink or two in me! And if they play the Lady, then I'm set.