FaceTime + Shake Shack

This weekend, I took full advantage of the ability to simply relax.  It will be my last "free" weekend for a little over a month!  Lots of work and fun travel planned for the rest of the summer!!

On Friday, I worked a little later than normal prepping for our upcoming National 7-on-7 Tournament and National Lineman Challenge.  I am excited about both events, but will be glad when the planning is done!  When I got home, I was able to facetime with my awesome little niece!  SO fun!

On Saturday, I went for a four mile run before heading to Queen Jane Day Spa to redeem a gift certificate from Christopher for an hour long massage.  It was VERY relaxing!!  After the massage, I walked a couple blocks over to Madison Square Park for some Shake Shack!  The line was out of control though.  I waited for 45 minutes just to place my order!  Crazy!  Fortunately, I was prepared with some reading material...

Later that night, I actually finished my book - Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto.  It was such a good one!  I got it a couple months ago in a book swap, but didn't have the chance then to start reading it.  Thanks again to Ashlee at A Step in the Right Direction for sending it over!  I will recap it eventually!

On Sunday, I met up with a couple of friends for lunch after church.  It was great to catch up with them for a couple hours!  Afterward, I did some laundry and watched the Miss USA competition.

How was your weekend?

Andrea :)

Daddy's Girl

 

Happy Father's Day to my awesome dad!

Dad -

I am so glad to have you as my dad!  You have the amazing ability to understand me...and often times I think you might be the only one!  I truly don't know what I would do without you!  You and I are so much alike in so many ways, and I'm happy that we have been able to make so many wonderful memories together.  From vacations to betting on our (mostly unlucky) numbers at horse races to critiquing Survivor to talking each other out of throwing in the towel when bad luck finds us...as it somehow inevitably manages to do!  Thankful to have you there through all of it!  It's easy for anyone to see that I am a daddy's girl through and through.  Thanks for being so incredibly wonderful!  

I love you!

Andrea :)

Oakley New York Mini 10k

 Race: Oakley New York Mini 10k

When: June 8 at 8:00am

5k Split: 39:15

Official Time: 1:20:26

Official Pace per Mile: 12:57

I think this might be my favorite NYC race.  It's my second year running it.  I like that is it limited to only women.  I like that it starts on the west side of the park versus inside the park or on the east side of the park.  I like that I get a medal at the end.  I just like it!

That being said, this wasn't one of my finest races for sure.  First of all, I stayed up too late the night before...not really doing anything, but I just couldn't fall asleep.  I set my alarm for 7am.  With an 8am start I should have known better, but I also knew I needed as much sleep as possible.  Basically, it was a no win from the start for me.  After a bit of struggle getting up and ready that morning, I made it to the general vicinity of the start of the race at about 8:03.  Not good.  So I started to jog over to the start...a bit warmed up, but not as well as normal...and hear the announcers claiming, "Here comes a few more stragglers..."  Again, not good.  So this is how I start the race.  I dodged and weaved through walkers for most of the first mile and a half, but once I entered the park I kinda fell into a groove.  Well, after a pretty steep hill anyway.  At the 5k mark, I started to get a little disappointed and by the time I hit the four mile marker I was ready to just stop altogether.  Instead, I briefly walked and convinced myself that I should give it all I had for the last two miles.  I did my best to do that, but it wasn't easy.  This race really taught me a lot about the mental aspect of running.  It's way more than half the battle especially if things don't start off on the right foot.  Lesson learned!

This is my last scheduled race until the marathon at this point.  I'll probably end up picking a couple in the fall that will keep me in line with my training benchmarks, but for now I am focusing on just running to keep in shape and for enjoyment.  At least for about another month...if this rain would ever stop!

Andrea :)

The Call

Chris and I went to see The Call over Memorial Day weekend.  It was at a small theater on the western edge of Times Square.  I liked the intimate atmosphere.  It was different from what we are used to on broadway, but still every bit as good.  We both really liked the show!   

The show featured the relationship dynamics of two couples - one married white male and female that had recently decided to adopt and one black lesbian couple.  They had been friends for many years, but when the white couple decides to adopt an African child points of view shift and opinions are freely made known.  Also, a friendly, but slightly nosy neighbor enters the scene.  He is African.

The content was heavy, but very well written and acted.  It was enjoyable even though some of the subject matter was very deep.  There was talk of infertility, gay/lesbian issues, adoption, interracial adoption, adoption of a small child versus a baby, AIDS, third world poverty.  It got intense!  Voices were raised, fights were had, and eventually peace was made.  It definitely focused on a lot of very tough and often times controversial situations.  But it did make you think.  And that is good.

I would definitely recommend this show to others.  It was a limited engagement show in NYC, but if you ever see it advertised locally I would buy a ticket.  Very thought provoking stuff!

Does the theater ever provide you with something to think about?

Andrea :)

Botanical Gardens and other Memorial Day fun...

My little brother, McKinley, finally came to visit me in New York City!  I have been trying to get him to visit for a few years now, but the timing never worked out.  Luckily for me, a couple of weeks ago he and his lovely girlfriend, Katie, made the trek to the city for some Memorial Day weekend fun!

We started their stay off right with some cheesecake at Juniors!  Delicious!!

The next day, we had a full day of fun!  We started off at the 9/11 Memorial.  It was a little gloomy which was fitting, but we didn't spend too much time at the memorial.

We decided to chance our luck at the rain holding off and headed out to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  It was fun, but super chilly!  Cold enough that I needed a hot chocolate halfway through the gardens...in late May.  Crazy!

 

After the gardens, we headed back to the city to rest up for a bit before we met Chris and headed out to our favorite hibachi steakhouse - Arrirang!

The next day, we took it easy with some Grimaldi's pizza and a movie - Hangover 3!  We all thought it was pretty funny.  Nothing tops the first one, but I think this one was better than the second one.  We also visited with Chris' family for a bit before heading back to the city for dinner.

On Sunday, we got locked inside my apartment building as we headed out to church.  Seriously, how DO these things happen to me?  I'm always amazed!  We eventually broke free though!  After church, Chris and I went to a play which I plan to review later this week while Bubsa (yep...that's what I call my baby brother) and Katie checked out the park.  We did manage to get some Pinkberry before heading our separate directions though!

That night, we had dinner at The Counter and went to an improv show downtown.  We had some good laughs and enjoyed spending some time together that evening! 

We also stopped by Cake Boss on the way home!  YUM!

The next day, I took them over to the east side for Brunch at Alice's Tea Cup and some Sprinkles cupcakes!  Both places are high on my list of places to take visitors! 

That evening we had some Brother Jimmy's BBQ before ending their trip with some tasty chocolate dessert at Max Brenner's Chocolate by the Bald Man.

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and TONS of tasty treats!!  I was SO exciting to have them here for a few days!  Chris and I had a good time showing them around!

What's your favorite place to take out of town visitors in your city?

Andrea :)

Not For Long

Seven things about my job.  Hmmmm.  Not sure if these should be fun things or annoying things or just plain ole general things, but nonetheless here are seven things about my job at the National Football League.

1 - I travel often for my job.  I've been to most of the NFL stadiums and even a handful of cities that don't even have NFL teams as a result of my (almost) six years at the League.  They even sent me to Seville, Spain, for a meeting once!  Feel free to check out the first item on my bucket list for recaps of all the stadium I have attended so far.  I have a goal to see each team play at their home stadium at least once...there are only 11 stadiums left on my list!

2 - It is on the rarest of occasions that I see a current player at my office.  I think a lot of people are confused about our office environment.  It's basically like yours plus a bunch of cool stuff that sits around like the Lombardi trophy and all the Super Bowl rings.

3 - Speaking of Super Bowls...yes, I have worked four now.  Here are my recaps - XLIV in South Florida and XLV in North Texas, XLVI in Indy, and XLVII in NOLA....which brings me back to #1.

4 - Specifically, I work on our High School Player Development programs - a mix of character development and football fundamentals provided free of charge to high school students all across the country.  You can check out our website here.

5 - The hours are long and the pay is minimal, but most strangers think somehow your job is SO much better than theirs....particularly if they are a sports fan. They want to know ALL about it.  This gets very old.  Trust me, it's just a job.  No one gives us a halftime rally speech or pours Gatorade over our head when we meet a deadline or does a super fun dance when a deal is finally made.  I promise.

6 - I do work just down the hall from a handful of pretty impressive former NFL Alumni - Merton Hanks (yes, I have seen his famous chicken dance in person), Troy Vincent, David Tyree (remember that amazing catch against his helmet in the first Patriots/Giants SB?), and Art Shell to name a few.  I haven't personally met David yet, but the rest of them are fabulous men!

7 - The NFL could start a side venture giving tours of our office.  I'm 100% certain people would pay for the opportunity.  I know I've given my fair share of tours to visiting family and friends.  I suppose it is a pretty impressive place if you aren't used to being there 40+ hours a week...every week.

Have I sold you on a job with the Not For Long League yet?

Andrea :)

Belmont Stakes + The Great Gatsby

This weekend was both busy and relaxing if that's even possible.

On Friday, I just relaxed.  That's it.

On Saturday, I ran a women only 10k in Central Park in the morning.  I'll share more about that in my recap later this week, but it was fun.  I wasn't as fast as I had hoped, but I was pretty consistent.

Chris met me at the end of the race and we headed out to Long Island for the Belmont Stakes!  Chris grew up about a mile from Belmont Park, but had never been to the Stakes before.  We had a blast!!

Fun Day at the Belmont Stakes.  We won three times on our first race of the day!!

We had fun catching up with Reba and Peter at the track :)

We were standing very close to the finish line.  The top picture is the starting gate with all the horses ready to run.  The bottom is Palace Malice with a good lead on the final stretch!

Chris picked #12 - Palace Malice!!  He won almost $40!  YAY!!

On Sunday, we completed another chapter in The Five Love Languages.  It has been great going through the book together.  We are both enjoying learning more about one another.



We also went to see The Great Gatsby before Chris drove back up to Albany.  I didn't really like it.  I mean, it was a very impressive film...well done for sure...but I just wasn't a fan of the story.  I had never read the book, and it was just a bit too dark for me.  I wanted a happier feel good story.  Oh, well.  At least we used movie vouchers so we didn't spend any money on it!

On Sunday night, I watched the Tony's.  Oddly enough, I had never watched them before.  I hadn't seen any of the shows nominated except Lucky Guy (check out my recap here).  I was glad Courtney B. Vance won for featured actor, but I was really hoping Tom Hanks would win as well.  Otherwise, Neil Patrick Harris was a phenomenal host.  He is great!  Also, I saw lots of interesting shows to put on my to see list.  Not sure I'll make it to them all, but my friend Mary and I are set to see Cinderella next week so I'm excited to mark at least one off the list then!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  What did you do?

Andrea :)