TV Taping Junkie

One of my favorite things I did in New York I didn't mention before was our TV taping of the Anderson Cooper show. We got free tickets to be part of the audience which taped at Lincoln Center.
It was an early morning for us. We had to be there by 9am, which most people would say isn't that early, but on Jesi's dog walking schedule, it is. Normally she's not up until 11am. When I come, she makes the exception. Thanks bestie!

The show we taped aired yesterday about OCD. I think they lied to the woman to get her on the show. But don't quote me on that. It's just my assumption from the interview with her and the woman from the rehab center. She apparently was told that she could exercise for an hour every day in rehab and during the interview, they said that they'd have to assess her before any exercise could be done. So in the "what happened after the show" the Anderson show said that rehab lasted 24 hours. Not surprising.
Check out the episode if you get a chance. It's not light, but really eye opening.

Jesi and I got great audience seats. 2nd row. You can see us at least 11 times throughout the hour. My lovely friend took photos of us every time we showed up on screen. I'm going to share. Our expressions are priceless; like OCD is ruining OUR lives.

Then yesterday, my friend, C, had tickets to a taping of Conan O'Brien and asked if I wanted to go. That's a no-brainer! It was an all day thing. A fun road trip up to LA and back. We got up early enough to get decent seats. The 5th group of people. We ended up in the 3rd row. And I appeared on TV again! Just for a minute when Conan was making fun of the audience with Craigslist ads, but you can see me. And funny enough, I'm wearing the same outfit. Maybe it's my lucky TV taping top. If I wear it, the cameras will come. Hehe.

There I am! In the bottom corner. So funny.

I loved watching Coco do his thing! He shook my hand. I was going for a high five when he came by singing to the audience, but then he stopped in front of me (I put my hand down) and he belted out and then reached out to shake hands and said "It's very nice to meet you." And then he walked away. So awesome!!

Even though neither show gave out free stuff, I had the best time. I'd really love to get tickets to Ellen, but those are hard to obtain. I submitted my request, so we'll see if it's accepted.
Anyone have TV taping hook ups they want to pass my way? I'd be so very grateful.

There's No Place Like Home

As much as I love to travel, I really do enjoy coming home. There truly is no place like home.

The week I spent in New York was fabulous. I went there to visit with my best friend and ended up also visiting with friends I haven't seen in over 15 years! That was a treat.
I definitely got in a lot of exercise, walking that is. I love that you have to walk everywhere (or take the subway). The neighborhoods in New York are so amazing in that you can pretty much walk out of your apartment and find something fun to do. Be it, shopping, going to the theatre (film and stage), and eating. I LOVE the 100s of options of food places in NYC. I stopped into to some of my favorite bakeries, tried new restaurants, and saw a few more that are opening soon which will be a stop on my next visit out.
I made sure to have a "real NY moment" before I left. Eating pizza on the stoop of a brownstone with a dog.

Eating a slice of pizza with Badu

Survivor Tree

Today's main event was the 9/11 memorial. It's not completely finished, but most of it is open to the public as long as you reserve a ticket time slot. It's free, but they won't let you inside without a reservation.

The process to get inside the memorial is quite tasking. It's exactly like going through TSA security at the airport. Though they were a lot nicer when the alarm went off as I walked through. There's no pat down. No invasive body searches. The security guy just asked me to lift up the bottoms of my pants. I have a feeling it was just my jewelry that set it off. I didn't have a concealed weapon so he let me pass.

There are two pools that they constructed in place of the original twin towers. They looked bottomless. It was quite eerie. Each pool is surrounded with names of all the victims from the attacks, including the ones from the Pentagon crash and the plane that crashed in PA. The North pool also had names from the first attack back in 1993.

There's a museum still under construction which will include remnants of the towers and objects and victims' belongings. It should be open later this year.

On our way out we saw a crowd of people around a fenced tree. Some people were tossing coins at the bottom of it. Curiosity led me to a volunteer who told us the story of this "miracle" tree.
This is a Callery pear tree that was planted back in the 70s when the world trade center was first built. It is the only living vegetation that survived the 9/11 attacks. It was discovered in Oct 2001 with burnt branches, snapped roots and a blackened trunk, by the gardener who used to work at the center. It was transported to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for recovery and then brought back in 2010.
They call it their survivor tree. People throw coins at the bottom of the tree for luck and as a donation to the memorial site. You can touch the tree. If you are lucky enough to see it, the trunk has 2 different textures. The bottom half is rough while the top half has smooth new branches from the last 10 years of regrowth. It really is quite a miracle.

Once the memorial is finished there will be over 400 oak trees planted to provide a peaceful canopy of new life. Granted it will take years for those trees to envelope the whole site, but for our children or children's children that are lucky enough to see it, I'm sure it will be quite beautiful.

When I get back home, I'll post the pictures I took at the memorial. In the meantime, here is the Survivor Tree.

Callery pear "survivor" tree

Dog Walking

The title says it all. My bestie, who lives here in NYC, is a dog walker. I got the pleasure of following her around while she worked. It was a lot of fun. Though my feet are killing me right now! I even wore comfortable boots but it didn't matter. This is not the type of walking we do in So Cal.
In NYC, everything is pretty much in walking distance or you hop on the subway. We Californians do a lot of driving. Short of training for a half marathon, I haven't walked this much in over a year. It's really sad. And I've trekked up her apartments 4 flights of stairs twice. I'm beat. Hail to the New York dog walkers.

Jesi, the NYC dog walker

Trying my hand at dog walking :)

Today I've been uptown and downtown. Did some shopping in SOHO - probably more than I should have. But I'm a giver and I love buying gifts for my friends.
We saw some interesting things/people. Ate some amazing peanut butter sandwiches too. All in all, it was a great day. Tomorrow we have a fairly free day. Only thing on the list is our tickets to the ground zero memorial site. Definitely looking forward to that. Pictures will be taken.

Have a great weekend!

Jesi, dog walking in action

Dog walker in training

Washington Square Park right before rush hour

Hello New York!

That's right. I'm in NYC. It's definitely been a long day. The plane ride was actually nice. I was expecting a full flight and to be sandwiched in my row (got stuck with an middle seat), but as luck had it, the row of seats in front of me end up completely empty. So the guy that was supposed to sit in the window seat took a seat in the empty ones and I scooted over to enjoy my first choice of plane seats.
They showed Footloose for our in flight entertainment as well as the sneak peak of the new NBC show, Smash. Which is amazing, by the way! I love musicals having gone to a performing arts school. I can't sing but that doesn't stop me from belting out my favorite songs in the car.

I got adventurous and took the AirTrain/subway into the city. Normally I would just take a shuttle but my friend said this would be faster. Not so bad. Just annoying with luggage.

Anyways, now that I'm here, I expect to get in a lot of walking during my week stay. My bestie is a dog walker so I'll be joining her for that. Plus she lives on the 4th floor in her building and there is no elevator so my legs will definitely be getting a workout on the stairs. I've already done it at least 3 times so far. I'm definitely out of shape. My first trek up with my suitcase was the worst. I could barely breathe. It's a good wake up call. I should be able to walk stairs easily. Granted a suitcase makes things more challenging. Maybe if I lived in the city permanently I would be like J and walk them effortlessly.

First meal in the city was ...
Shake Shack! They have amazing food for a burger joint. Just saying...

So let the New York adventures begin!

Quest For Shoes

So I went on a shoe quest today. I'm going to New York next week and the one pair of walking shoes I have to take with me are not so comfortable anymore. It's probably because I've worn them out from all the past running I did. And the only other pair of sneakers I have are not the best for NYC walking, since you walk pretty much everywhere. My best friend, Jesi, is a dog walker in NY and I usually join her during the walks. So my feet definitely need some comfort.

I started my journey at my local DSW and found some really cute heels by Dr Scholl's. Totally not what I needed but it was so hard to resist them. They were 70% off, so I had to get them.

Comfort to the max!

I found some other casual shoes, but decided against them. I'm going to go back this weekend with my mom to get a second opinion. She recommends that I go for casual shoes rather than sneakers, but that's only because she has a hard time wearing shoes like sneakers that hug her feet.

I ended up at Kohl's and got a new pair of running shoes! My Asics have pretty much seen their day, so I'm very happy that I found a replacement. I know I can't run right now, but I can speed-walk and work my way up to jogging to test out my ankle.

They make me want to run again

I'm loving the magenta in my new shoes! My last pair were blue which has always been my favorite color, but I'm diggin' the pink.

So I have 5 days to prepare my outfits for NY. I hear it's still in the 40s so this Southern California girl has got to find some warm outfits. Layers. That's the key. My wardrobe consists mainly of t-shirts and tank tops; not something I can really wear on the East Coast. So the clothing scavenger hunt in my closet begins...