a resolution

Posted on September 1, 2011 by chloe elizabeth

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I have been a little obsessed with food trucks lately…because they are amazing! Just around the corner from my new office is a food truck lot and every day there are three different trucks, usually two food and one treat. And I have been taking full advantage of the trucks. Just one more reason to love living in a big city. Here’s a little look at the delicious treats:

Kimchi Taco

VanLeeuwen

Desi

Je and Jo

Rickshaw

And then, the other day, I realized that I was eating out breakfast (okay, it doesn’t really count because I just buy a banana from the fruit guy by my building for $0.25, but I’m still eating out), lunch, and dinner. Almost every day. Almost every meal. Not only is this not the best idea for my waistline…it’s also not the best idea for my bank account. I have a weekly budget and I was blowing it. Every. Week. And then this whole hurricane thing happened and I thought about food storage, and how I need to keep on top of it and rotating through the food…which would require me eating that food.

So, an idea was born and a resolution was made. For the month of September (well, really from yesterday until I fly to Utah the first week of October) I am not going to eat out. At all. (Although the fruit in the morning after my run I’m not counting because it’s as cheap as the grocery store.)

I went grocery shopping Monday night, and even with shopping at Whole Foods and purchasing organic whenever possible…I was well under my weekly budget. I know I’m only on day two, but already I feel better and I’m less stressed about money. It might put a little bit of a wrench in my social life this month, but it also means I’ll be a little more creative when it comes to time with friends.

I realize that this would not be a big deal for some of you…but until you’ve lived in New York as a singleton, I don’t know that you can understand just how dependent you can become on restaurants for your survival (okay…maybe that’s a little dramatic, but you get it is kind of dramatic). So, don’t judge me or think that this will be easy. Just wish me luck. It’s going to be…interesting. And at the end of the month, maybe I’ll have a new plan. One that’s a little less extreme, but that helps me stay on track, both physically and financially. Maybe?

Oh, and I’ve also cut out Diet Coke. Now do you feel concerned for my survival?

palmyra

Posted on June 10, 2011 by chloe elizabeth

Just shy of five years ago, I headed to upstate NY to spend some time with my just exed ex-fiance (yes…sometimes I’m slightly masochistic). Needless to say that, while Palmyra was beautiful and it was fun to spend some time in upstate New York, the memory of that place was slightly tainted. So, when Montreal became cost prohibitive for our Memorial day weekend trip and Maria suggested we head to Palmyra instead, I was all for it. I was ready to make a new memory.

The entire weekend was amazing. We stopped in Poughkeepsie where we were able to visit the Walkway over the Hudson, the Eveready Diner (featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives). We stayed in Albany the first night and let’s just say it was an experience. It’s the state capitol of New York and it’s kind of creepy. We decided it would be the perfect location for the next Will Smith post-apocalyptic summer blockbuster. Just to highlight the weirdness of the place, when we attended the little church Sunday morning, a very nice woman (probably my age) sitting behind us with her three darling children introduced herself and then proceeded to ask us why we were visiting. That probably doesn’t sound that weird, but it was the look on her face. A look that screamed, “Get out while you can! And take me with you.”

And then, Sunday, we made it to Palmyra where we were able to walk through the Sacred Grove with almost no one else around. I’m sure it was a really great experience for both Jenna and Maria who had not been there before. For me, it was great in a different way. While I am well over the pains of my broken engagement, the fact that I’m still single when I would prefer not to me is a little painful. So I was dealing with a lot emotionally. Add to that that I had recently been out with a guy a couple of times who is nice and fun, but has no long term potential (sometimes I think that’s more painful than not dating at all) and it was just a lot to deal with…and yet it felt good to be dealing with it.

The next morning, as I thought more about my current single status and my desire for it to be otherwise, I had a very clear question come into my mind. What would you be doing if you weren’t worried about getting married? And so many thoughts came to my mind; getting out of debt, spending more time serving others, not stressing out about the fact that I am not now, nor ever have been, nor ever will be a size 6. You know…stuff like that. And while it is now two weeks later and not worrying about not being married is not easy, I am able to remind myself of that little question when I start to stress out (more to come on the dating front…).

And back to the weekend…while all of this emotional stuff was going on, the fun and games also continued. Seriously, road trips are the best! Especially road trips with friends who see nothing abnormal about starting dinner with Red Lobster cheddar biscuits, and then continuing on to P.F. Chang’s…only after seriously debating whether a stop at Chili’s for some chips and queso might be necessary. That’s right. Did it! Oh, how I love my friends!

an adventure in the catskills

Posted on May 8, 2011 by chloe elizabeth

Yesterday, my friend Michelle and I decided to get out of the city for a little adventure in nature. Michelle decided we should hike Wittenberg Mountain. In her Catskill Mountains guide book the hike was rated as difficult. We joked about how a difficult rating for the Catskill Mountains would probably be like a moderate hike in the Rockies. As we set out, I was thinking that maybe the people that rated the hike had actually done some hiking outside of the Catskills and knew what they were talking about.

About 30 minutes in, we discovered we were on the wrong trail. We decided that we would head back down and get on the right trail since that was the hike we had planned to do. In the process of figuring out where we were and where we should have been, it was also discovered that the trail we were on was rated as moderate…this made me a little nervous as I was wearing running shoes and felt ill-equipped (both in actually equipment and physical shape) to hike 3.9 miles up on a trail rated difficult. But I just smiled and followed Michelle down to the right trail head.

What the guide did not share with us was that we would actually be doing a little rock climbing. And the rock climbing is after you’ve already hiked uphill for about 3 miles, so you are tired, but too far up to throw in the towel. And you think after the first wall that that has to be it, but you would be mistaken. Three walls later (the book refers to these as “scrambles”…I think because if you were to fall, you would become scrambled like an egg), we finally were on normal hills again. And then we reached the top. And it was TOTALLY worth it.

This was the first of the “scrambles”…not sure the picture does it justice, but it was serious.

I wish this picture did justice to just what an amazing view this is…I also wish I could have capture the lightening storm we could see in the distance. But, unless you hike this yourself, you’re just going to have to take my word for it. AMAZING!

Of course, the hike back down was hard, as well, but a different kind of hard. Besides just being a killer on the joints, I managed to twist my ankle and trip multiple times (running shoes and serious hiking do not mix) one time almost ended with me falling face first into a rocky stream…except for a lovely tree that broke my fall. It really was quite the adventure and one I would actually repeat.

Once we got down, we decided to stop in the little town nearby and get dinner…which was also an awesome experience. Sadly I did not get any pictures of the multiple tie-dyed outfits I saw (Phoenicia, where we had dinner, is about 13 miles from Woodstock), but trut me when I say it was impressive. Talk about a perfectly spent Saturday. I couldn’t have asked for better.

what i’ve been up to…

Posted on May 1, 2011 by chloe elizabeth

The little brother’s graduation in Utah with all of my siblings. I love that we both graduated from the same MBA program and only a year apart. It was fun to be back a year later and think about what the last year has entailed. I’m excited for Justin and his family and their new adventures!

Hanging out with these kidlets at the rock gym in p-town. I don’t know if I ever seen something so cute!

because it’s been too long

Posted on March 1, 2011 by chloe elizabeth

I’m pre-dating this post so that it follows right after my dad’s birthday on the blog. Here are some photos of the nieces and nephews. I can’t believe how big the older ones are getting. And how grown up the younger ones seem. It was also fun to take some action shots of them. My brothers and sisters will be so sad if I ever decide to stop taking pictures…

Probably my favorite pic of the whole sledding expedition!

The same niece, looking a little less crazy. 🙂

Can you see the mud flying?

Love the tongue on this one…this was her face down almost every run.

My oldest nephew…I can’t believe he’s almost 17. And my niece who is almost 8!

My nephew wore his hat like this basically the whole time. Trust me, he was having fun, even though you can’t see it on his face like you can on his cousin’s.