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hannah's wedding weekend

Posted on by jplatt27

i was in new york last weekend for hannah‘s bachelorette party and wedding. it was a friend-filled weekend, one of my favorite kinds.

friday night was hannah’s bachelorette party.

after meeting up at her apartment for a pre-dinner drink, we went to la lucha on the lower east side.

dinner was delicious–their guac was spicy but so good, and the three tacos i had for dinner melted in my mouth.

afterward we went to a lounge for drinks and dancing.  overall, it was a pretty tame night.  understandably since her wedding was two days later with a rehearsal dinner in between.  this party was totally my speed.

♥

hannah’s wedding was great.  i’ve never seen her more happy.

unfortunately i don’t have a ton of pictures.  i didn’t take that many and the ones that i did take didn’t turn out great. [note for next time: take more pictures.]

hannah and david were married on the terrace at the boathouse at prospect park in brooklyn, new york. it was a beautiful venue with both an indoor and outdoor component and boat rides!

{onlookers watching/listening to the ceremony from a nearby bridge}

i had a great time dancing the night away with these girls and loved that i was able to spend some time with their significant others too.

it was a weekend that reminded me what life is all about: friends, family, and love.

ps–i didn’t forget about work talk wednesday.  i have a great post in the works.  stay tuned for next week’s work talk wednesday post. and if you missed one, catch up: back from vacation, in the zone, perks at work.

brag about your boyfriend

Posted on by jplatt27

i have two guy friends that don’t talk about their girlfriends/wives/fiancees the way they should.  no, they don’t brag about how wonderful they are, how much they do for them, how excited they are to spend time with them. instead they make sarcastic comments about something they forgot to do or a mess that they made or that they should “get in the kitchen.” not that i think mike goes around gushing about me or anything but i’d like to think that when he mentions me it’s in a positive way.

now that i think about it, my girlfriends don’t go around gushing about their men, telling me why they think their boyfriend/husband/fiance is so great.  but why not? yes i understand that we may not want to boast about the man we love as it may make people around us feel uncomfortable, but every once in a while it doesn’t hurt to share a little.

so, let’s hear it for the boys! what makes your significant other so great?? go ‘head, brag a little.  (and then maybe tell him that you were bragging 🙂

nyc bound

Posted on by jplatt27

i’m headed to NYC this morning for an extended weekend to celebrate this girl:

my friend hannah.  hannah’s bachelorette party is tonight in manhattan and her wedding is sunday evening. i’m looking forward to celebrating my girlfriend and to share in the joy as she and david express their love and make a commitment to one another.

i’m also super super excited to see these girls:

bring on the fun!

found: my go-to spin class

Posted on by jplatt27

before my wedding, i was going to a spin class on wednesday mornings pretty religiously.  it was taught by judy, an energetic, loud, encouraging instructor that played a wide range of good music from country to black-eyed peas to glee. i loved the class and i loved my old gym. there were a bunch of other people that were there always there in the morning and seeing the regulars every week was a comfort, made me feel like the world was still turning as it should.   i stopped going after my wedding. if i’m honest, i think it was because i didn’t want to have to say goodbye when we moved across town. (yes, falling of the face of the earth makes so much more sense.)

now i’m at a different gym and have been trying to get into a groove at this gym for a while.  i found a yoga class that i really enjoy on sundays. the instructor guides us through the class, always encouraging us to focus on our breathing, to be where we are.  she introduces new poses and offers a range of options by saying “for some of us, we’ll be here, for others of us, we’ll go here.” i also found a bodypump class i like on saturday mornings but with weekends so busy, i need a routine during the week.

me after spinning last week

after yesterday’s spin class, i can say definitively that i’ve found it. i’ve found my go-to spin class, the anchor of my workout routine. i went to a thursday am spin class and i can’t articulate it but there was something i wasn’t loving about it.  last week i went to the wednesday morning spin class and loved it.  the instructor played great music (i was totally rocking out to moves like jagger), my heart was pumping and i was sweating up a storm.  but there are two instructors for wednesday morning and they alternate week to week.  so yesterday was the test.

i went and it was awesome! the class was similar in that there was great music (i got pumped up to nicki minaj’s super bass and lady gaga’s edge of glory) but different in that it was taught by a man and the lights were kept on the whole time. i’m used to the being in class with the lights off and i enjoy it.  something about the dark gets me in the zone and i’m in my own little spin world.  and it helps to mask the fact that i kind of dance/sing-along. but yesterday the lights were on and i didn’t understand why.  but the instructor did a lot of team drills where he split us up into teams and we would alternate sprints and the other team would clap and cheer.  of course, i really really enjoyed this.  there is something about making noise and cheering and clapping.  he said “this is why we keep the lights on because we are all one team.” cheesy? perhaps. but there was something inspiring and motivating about it.  i felt a part of something.  a part of something good and encouraging, even if only for a few minutes at a time.

talk to me

  • what’s the anchor to your workout routine?
  • are you a fan of spinning?
  • what makes a spin class awesome for you?

 

 

 

work talk wednesday: perks at work

Posted on by jplatt27

it’s wednesday again and we’re talking about work.  or, i’m talking about work. [but you do have the opportunity to chime in through the comment section below.] so far we’ve talked about coming back from vacation and productivity.  today’s topic is perks at work.

perks at work.  there are perks that come with every job, some big and some smaller.  they can make your life a bit easier or just a little more fun.  here are some examples:

small perks

  • coffee provided
  • plastic silverware provided
  • casual fridays
  • getting out early before a holiday weekend

bigger perks

  • your own office (mike’s thought, and at first i didn’t think this was a perk but the more i think about it the more i realize how right he is.)
  • tuition benefits/reimbursement
  • free meals
  • manicure mondays. tina works for a PR company in NYC and they have manicure mondays every third monday.  how sweet is that?!
  • flex schedule
  • work from home
  • laundry service
  • condensed work schedule–work more M-R and get out early on friday or have fridays off, every other friday off
  • transportation benefits
  • discounts
  • meeting celebrities or otherwise famous people
talk to me [i.e. write in the comments below]: what perks come with your job? how motivated are you by perks?  would you take a job or stay at a job because of a particular perk? if you could have any perk at your job right now, what would it be?
if i could choose a perk for my job this week it would be an afternoon massage (i’ve been holding a lot of tension in my shoulders), someone to organize my space (my desk is crazy messy right now).

saving strategy

Posted on by jplatt27

my grandfather shared this saving strategy with my sister who shared it with me. it’s super simple, mike and i have done it before, and its cool to see how quickly the money adds up. we’re now employing this strategy to save for our trip to chicago at the end of october. so what’s this quick, easy saving strategy that’s going to have us eating our fill of yummy chicago pizza?

save $5 bills.

i’m telling you this works.  the last time we did this we saved $150 to put towards my credit card bill. and i read in real simple about a women that took her family on vacation to cape cod by saving $5s. it’s a small enough amount that you don’t feel the pinch but it’s sizable enough to add up relatively quickly. like if you go to starbucks and pay with a $20 and get three $5s back.

granted you have to carry around cash to make this work.  you won’t get very far if your wallet only sees a $20 bill once a month. it’s all about how committed you are to this saving plan.  i get cash once a week from tutoring and my rate of saving is quite a bit higher than mike’s who only has cash if he makes an effort to go to the atm. maybe you start to take out your weekly or monthly spending money in cash. and you have to be disciplined about it. i put $5s in a different place in my wallet so that i don’t spend them accidentally.

i’m not going to lie there are times when i’m getting a burrito at chipotle and secretly hope i don’t get $5s back. and maybe yesterday i paid for my $2 coffee with my debit card so that i could keep my $20 bill in tact. [do as i say, not as i do.] wow, now i feel really guilty about that. but now that i have that little confession out in the open, i’ll be more accountable.

i’ll keep you posted on how much we’re able to save using this method before we take off for chicago.

 

self and real simple september

Posted on by jplatt27
i look forward to getting my SELF magazine in the mail each month. on our way to ocean city, i picked up the september issue of real simple, what a treat! both magazine’s were particularly good this month. here’s what i loved or took away from my reading:
  1. great treadmill workout, SELF p. 118
  2. i was inspired by SELF’s women doing good, p. 38-44
  3. getting to the gym can keep my skin clear, SELF p. 59
  4. the key to a happy life is having a road map, SELF p. 155-157 (i love the author’s goal to “stay happily married” and the mini goals that support it “go on date nights twice a month, sit on the couch next to my husband when we watch tv, have as much sex as possible, send flirty texts and sweet email”)
  5. i should get back to my strength training routine as weight lifting gives clarity RS p. 204
  6. 10 new ideas for broccoli, RS p. 236-237
  7. why my paycheck got bigger a few months ago, RS p. 182
  8. frozen shrimp is just as good as “fresh,” RS p. 239
  9. i teared up reading about how people pay tribute to loved ones lost on 9/11, RS p. 206-214
both issues were inspiring and motivating and had things that may help me work through my quarter-life crisis as well as recipe ideas to keep me and my husband healthy and satisfied.
what are your favorite magazines? what things have you learned or taken away from magazines recently?

3 random things

Posted on by jplatt27
  1. i’m super pumped for the grand opening of shophouse, chipotle’s new asian-inspired restaurant, tomorrow. you know i’ll be there!

source

2.  remember this song??

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug88HO2mg44]

my 12-year-old tutoring student was singing a backstreet boys song during our session today. when i asked her if she knew this song, she hadn’t heard of it.  i pulled it up on my phone and oh boy, did it bring back memories…

3. i think i found a new spin class! and i had an ah-ha moment during class this morning…of course my adrenaline started pumping when the instructor played the new maroon 5 song and i may or may not have been singing along when i realized what the chorus means: “take me by the tongue and i’ll know, kiss me ’til you’re drunk and i’ll show you all the moves like jagger…” tongue, jagger, moves, it’s too much.  i was a little bit disturbed after this but i love love love the song.  and i was definitely breathless after an intense climb!

quarter-life crisis

Posted on by jplatt27

there have been a few times since college that i felt like i was having a quarter-life crisis.  the first was the end of summer 2009 when i wondered where am i going, what am i doing? i’d been in a cubicle for six months and would describe my day as beige.  i think my engagement took my mind off it for a little over a year.

but after the wedding and honeymoon those feelings of where am i going, what am i doing slowly started to creep up again. the summer passed in a blur and we’ve been busy every weekend since mid-july and most weekends before that.  now fall is arriving soon and our weekends are still busy and as i look into my future i feel like i’m on a treadmill of 9-5, 9-5, 9-5 in a beige office that either has too bright florescent lights or dim lamp lighting, my eye sight deteriorating from staring at a computer all day.

if there’s one thing i learned in the last year, through the process of planning my wedding, it’s that family and friends are the most important. love and family and friends, and sharing happy times, helping through the bad times, parties, get-togethers, and vacations in between, that’s what life is all about.

and there’s never enough time with friends and family.  so we fill our weekends up with visitors and trips home and then feel like there’s never enough time to relax, to take care of things on the to-do list before its back to the monotony of 9-5, 9-5, 9-5.

my life doesn’t align with this key realization that family, friends, love, and enjoying it all are what matters. but still i’m torn, feel obligated to pursue a higher degree though it may or may not be in line with the life i’d like to be living.  but then again maybe done the line it will provide me with the life i want to be living.

so what now? how do i tell myself that i’m where i’m supposed to be? that there are opportunities ahead of me that i can’t see just yet? i’m always telling others to enjoy the ride.  that i’m still in the exploratory phase and that’s a great place to be.  it’s good that i have so many things that i’m interested in currently and who knows how they’ll all come together in a few years or even a few months.

how do i move from feeling smothered and in limbo to enjoying everything that i have going for me? a fun, warm, loving husband, a city that i adore, a good-paying job with lots of opportunities to learn, and friends and family that i so look forward to seeing.

have you felt a quarter-life crisis?  what was the subject of yours?  how did you/are you dealing with it?