get me to pay day

 here are some items i'm eyeballin' to spend my paycheck on this weekend...



this is the softest tee & they sell them at anthro every year & i'm freaking getting one.  to put under my puffer. 
lounge wear lounge wear lounge wear



i visit emerson made's website almost daily & this black turtleneck will be my first official purchase from their company.  why you ask?  well... i guess it's just because i'm a turtleneck kinda gal...



& won't this go nicely with it? 





&i think this gem will go perfectly with said turtleneck as well.  who is ready for fall in nyc?!



& finally, my roommate, who is a VARY established new york style icon, has recently introduced me to steven alan.  these flannels are to die for & his dresses & bascially everything is adorable aaaaaaaaand a million $$$.  so i'm going to his "outlet" on the UWS to see if i can get a bargain.  fun!

happy b-day, z-baby

at a loss for words is something i rarely if ever am.  but as i sit here thinking about it being my sister's birthday and me not being there in person to tell her she's OLD to her face... i all of a sudden don't know what to say.  all i can think about is how i accidentally turned her hair pink a few months ago in an at-home hair hi-lighting gone awry.

(still feel really badly about that one.)

or how i used to yank her around our house by her ponytail when we were little.  or how i would steal her clothes every day in high school but would never let her touch mine.  or about the one time she told the boy i had a crush on that i wrote about him in my diary and i pushed her into a hot tub fully clothed.

for some reason i'll never understand, somewhere along the way, lindsey jo forgave me for being a total monster to her.  can you believe that?  i can't.  she shouldn't have.  but that's just the kind of little lady she is.

being away from her today is no fun.  but i hope she knows her heart is still in mine and my prayer for her is that she would continue living for something bigger than herself... she is such an example to me and i miss her so much.

happy happy happy birthday, sugar booger!

know you are LOVED and all our lives are better because you're in them.

summer in the city

in honor of it being FRICKIN FREEZING in new york this weekend, i thought it would be fun to update you on how the last few weeks of my summer were spent.  first full season in the northeast... or anywhere else other than texas for that matter.  it's different for sure, but my favorite time of year still pulled through and left me begging for more.  here are some pics to prove it happened.

i tried to run as much as i could.  since the temps rarely went above 90, i really didn't have an excuse.  once i huff and puff to this bridge i know i'm half way through.

the best best best best treat i discovered was rockaway beach!  it's on the furthest tip of brooklyn and just a 40 minute subway ride away.  does that blow anyone else's mind that i can get on a subway train in downtown manhattan and get off at a beach?  d and i spent many a saturday here and i brought along a visitor or two as well.  it was delightful.

rockaway taco stand probably had a thing or two with my obsession with this place as well.

d and i also began teaching in the kid's ministry at our church one sunday a month.  couldn't get that guy off the play mat.  pretty weird.

of course we have also happened upon some amazing places to eat.  bar pitti is a pretty satisfying italian experience.  and it's in the west village so i'm all in.

this is at birreria atop eataly in midtown.  eataly is the brainchild of mario batali and is a must stop for anyone coming to the city.  

and you'll be thrilled to know i've decided what my favorite flower is.  white roses!  my bf surprises me with them a lot.  way more than he should.  i'm so glad i moved here so he can buy me my favorite flowers all the time.

now would probably be a good time mention that i also survived my first hurricane this summer.  for real.  we spent a good day and a half sequestered in my apartment watching the news, checking twitter, taping windows, filling up bathtubs and the like.  thank the lord ol irene did not pack the nasty punch she was supposed to.  just some fallen tree limbs aaaaaaaaaand a lost baby croc.

labor day weekend... the swan song of summer... was one of the best weekends yet.  some good friends of ours (also bu grads) had a big baylor/tcu watch party in their brooklyn backyard complete with projector screen and a cookout.  made me feel like i wasn't so far away from home and in the most bizarre turn of events: baylor won!  still waiting on my commemorative piece of the goal post.

the next morning d picked me up IN A CAR and drove us 15 minutes to harlem where i proceeded to jump up and down like a 10 year old school girl as we pulled up, got out, closed our own doors, and walked into...

target.  this photo does not do it justice, but let's just say he and i both spent a small fortune and every single penny was worth it.  d was patient as i meandered down every aisle, not really needing anything but also everything at the same time.  what a trooper.  would've stayed all day and night but we had to get back to get ready and kick it into wedding mode for a co-worker of his getting mawwied in new jersey.  we got to drive there, too.  magical.

then on actual labor day my roommate casey had an extra box seat to the us open and invited me to go!  it was so nice of her and although i've never played or watched a game of tennis in my life, the experience was so fun and i even got to see serena strut her stuff.
(remind me never to run into her in a back ally.)

so that about rounds out the last few weeks.  now it's getting dark earlier, i'm packing up my flip flop and ordering my first trench coat.  it is very safe to say i'll never forget this summer and the beginning to the rest of my life.  

server to the stars

you didn't think i'd hostess at just any 'ol place now did you? i have begun my nyc career in the service industry at a restaurant that has fed the likes of beyonce... sjp... and i'm sure others. yesterday was my second day of training and guess who came in for lunch?

none other than jonathan cheban of course! you know... jonathan cheban? of "the spin crowd" fame? better know as...

the k sister's pr rep, dolls! for once my kardashian/jenner trivia knowledge works to my advantage! none of my other co-workers knew who he was so i just played along and acted like oh yeah, i'e never seen that guy on a kim kardashian-produced tv show on e!, either. so naturally i needed to blog about it because keeping it inside has been torture.

and just so you know, if at any point i see lam lam... i will believe with all my heart that my number is up.

xo, sem

better late than never

mmmmkay. i am internet/picasa movie-making challenged. i finally got the pictures and captions working but the song wouldn't load. and that's the best part! so. follow these simple steps, if you will:

1) press play on this youtube directly below.

2) wait for the freaking intro commercial to finish.

3) once the song starts, press play on the video below the you tube

4) yay!

From Movies

bible: next picture montage will be more efficient. i mean, it's 2011, can somebody get me a user-friendly movie maker up in here??

accountability

i have to stop drinking so many cokes. my apartment is directly across the street from this great little bodega and i've gotten into the habit of getting chicken salad and a coke from there almost every day during the week. didn't think much of it until i saw that 20 fl oz bottle packs a whopping 240 calories and i've got to give it up. at least no more until after the 4th of july.

so i'm putting this out into the blogosphere... SAWAH IS DONE WITH COCA-COLA. THE SUGAR OVERLOAD IS GOING TO GIVE ME DIABETES & THAT'S THE LAST THING ANYBODY NEEDS TO BE DEALING WITH RIGHT NOW, MY EARLY ON-SET DIABETIC LIFESTYLE.

ok, i feel good about this. new mantra...

xo, sem

my new normal

maybe it's time to put some words to my experience in new york thus far. (warning: this post might not have any pictures.)

i have been here a month now and so there's definitely been enough that has taken place to comment on. basically i'm having the time of my life. daniel is here and i get to do crazy things like have dinner with him every day. when he says he's going into his office, i know where he's going because i've seen it and could get there in 20 minutes if i needed to. his friends are becoming my friends and i love them. we've even gotten over our witching hour that would come every weekday when we'd meet up around 6pm and come close to having a fist fight for no good reason. the lesson has been learned that he needs some time to "unwind" and i need to not expect a parade fanfare right off the bat. so expectations have been shifted and 6pm is now full of peace and delightfulness. (wine and or margaritas have also been of helpful assistance.)

the city in itself is amazing and getting around on foot, bus, subway or cab is becoming easier every day. the weather is nice, the things i'm exposed to are incredible (except that one time i stepped on the homeless man laying on the street) and everyday i wake up so excited about what the next 24 hours will hold. it's all so good and i'm so thankful. however...

i think it's worth noting that not all of it is exactly perfect. a lot of times when i look at blogs or facebook albums or 140-character tweets, i sometimes struggle, being led to believe that whomever i'm stalking at the moment has a flawless life and got to where they are with no hardship or effort. everything seems seamless for them and i feel like a big, fat failure. (note: this problem is my own, not the lovely people who post about the fun things going on in their lives. you feelin' me?)

so i just still haven't found a job. i interview all the time and nothing has come up. and in the spirit of boot strap pick up, i'm going to start hostessing at a resturant here until the right permanent position comes along. not exactly what i planned, but i can either pout about it or look at it as a blessing. you see, the thing that is hitting me is that there's always going to be something. before my move to new york, i was whining about not being able to find a guy that i connected to and or would ever want to commit to and where is MY knight in shining armor?! the Lord has now graciously provided that in an abundant way and the first thing i do is start complaining that i'm not working at the right place or living in the right neighborhood and i'm having to use all this PATIENCE crap again and why meeeee?? why isn't it all instantly working out like i thought it would in my head??? ughhhhhhhhhh!! spiral spiral spiral.

i hope i'm getting to the point of finally learning that my life will never play out like i think it will. and that's ok. in fact it's better because that's when i must rely on a little thing some like to call faith. and i always say i want a life of faith, so um, actually pursuing it in my day to day issues and decisions is the only way i'm going to get it. funny how that works. trying to make everything look the way i think it should or like how it's worked for someone else is taking away creative license from the Creator of all of it in the first place and don't you love the thought of being 80 years old, rocking on your porch, thinking back over your life with a huge grin on your face thinking "only He could have made all that up"?!

the best part about all of it is that i've been typing this entire post on my laptop... sipping hot tea... in the middle of the afternoon... at an east village coffee shop. are carrie bradshaw and i the same person yet? have to be getting close. and in other news: i have been working my fingers to the bone, trying to put together a picture montage of my first month here and it keeps freezing up! i have no clue what the deal is, but i will get this posted, if it puts me into an early grave or not. be looking forward to it...

until then, here's to faithful hearts, barista pranks and rocking in those rocking chairs... xo, sem