Sissy is 30!

I can't party like I used to, guys.

Upon arriving back in Cleveland after three ridiculously fun and amazing days/nights in NYC to celebrate the best sissy in the world's 30th birthday I literally fell asleep Monday night with my dinner in my lap. Totally normal.

The second night post trip I made it through dinner without falling asleep - barely - and on the third night post trip I'm finally able to gather my thoughts for a blog post. 

It was that much fun.

Celebrating my sissy is easy, she's awesome, creative, beautiful, a pain in my ass and a great friend - love you, Nicolette!

Now, for the pictures, because even though I'm lucid again I'm not about to do a detailed, copy heavy, play by play of the whole weekend. Let's be serious here.

Sissy and I got to sit second row for a taping Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - he's as adorable, funny and talented as you'd think live. The Roots ain't bad either.

A swanky and THE BEST seat dancing 11pm dinner I've ever had at Beauty & Essex with Jason, C-Rossi and Sissy

Saturday we spent the day at 5 Pointz which is essentially this breathtakingly beautiful outdoor graffiti art "museum" and eating out weight in Greek diner food

Saturday night we celebrated sissy's birthday with a 50's themed murder mystery party with friends at Smithfield NYC - there were characters and investigators - C-Rossi was a waitress, I was a "mature" actress and sissy was a lounge singer (hello, sequins)

Friends from near and far!

More friends and fun - I mean, sissy even got a mugshot prop and made name badges for all the characters - so good.

Everyone (minus me and Leah) celebrating sissy!

After much investigator deliberation NO ONE guessed "Gerry Gill" as the murderer - she almost got away with it, ha. I still find this picture hilarious and love that C-Rossi was guilty.

Post party we hit up a couple more bars and headed home way past my bedtime but woke up in time to eat fried chicken and eggnog waffles for brunch at Melba's, see The Sapphires and eat pizza at Patsy's.

I'm tired just recapping this but already want to plan a Cleveland murder mystery party it was so much fun - who's in?

Happy Thursday, kids.

This past weekend was brought to you by the color green....

I don't even know how it's Thursday and I haven't blogged yet this week. Actually I do know how, I've been busy as crap.

It's a good busy though, a busy that will lead to a long weekend in NYC to celebrate my sissy's 30th birthday... but that's for another post.

Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day and while I didn't celebrate in my traditional way of starting to drink at dawn and not coming home still the sun goes down it was still a wonderful weekend. Mostly thanks to good friends who let me pretend St. Pat's was on Saturday and not Sunday.

Friday night CK and I headed to Press Wine Bar in Tremont for a dinner double date with good friends Reena and Jody. The food and wine was delicious, definitely a spot worth checking out. The deviled eggs are TDF.

The beautiful Reena and Jody and the marginally attractive CK and I ;)

Saturday I headed to Canton for my cousin Kristen's baby shower at Congress Lake Country Club - a perfect location to celebrate Kristen and her soon to be baby girl and catch up with family. After the shower my mom and I headed to a couple potential wedding venues for me and CK - the jury is still out on that though.

When I got back to Cleveland I headed straight to the Driggs' new home in the Detroit-Shoreway (yay neighbors!) to celebrate Saturday St. Patrick's Day. There was Irish singing, Irish dancing, Irish drinking and friends all around. There was also some AMAZING video of Driggs and CK to be shared at a later date. A trip to the UnderDog of the Happy Dog rounded out the evening, good times.

Baby shower, pinky ring bling for Seanski and friends!

On the actual St. Pat's, CK, his little one and I headed to the FREEZING parade route in Downtown Cleveland, had fun at Mavis Winkles and to round the day off and a screening of Argo (finally) before sleep.

No complaints on the action from my end!

Happy Thursday, kid.

Out and about...

Some fun pics from last weekend:

Me, Mcgahan and Lzone having fun with selfies at a Friday night out at the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland. I'm still waiting to make some $$$ there, although I ended up breaking even this night - I'll take it.

It was Mrs. (Holler) Doyle's baby shower and the UD girls are together - could she look any more adorable? Also, I love that they re-used their wedding centerpieces and added baby! Can't wait to meet this little bundle of joy :)

Well, good news, it's Thursday, the weekend is almost here and it's St. Patrick's Day on Sunday. Any fun plans?

Have a good one, kids.

Be kind to each other

I was sitting at the Gypsy Beans window bar this past Saturday doing a little work when an elderly lady asked the room if anyone had taken the "Forum" section of her Plain Dealer from her table, which she had secured with her coat.

I glanced around to see if anyone had it and it turned out the table directly next to her did. There were two women and a man at the table, the man was reading the section of the paper in question. Once the women realized he had taken it (his back was to her) they quickly brought it to his attention and told him to hand it over.

Easy peasy right? I'm sure it was all a misunderstanding, grabbing a paper from a coffee shop table isn't abnormal and then you just hand it back - no biggie.

Well instead, the gentleman reading the paper had what I can only describe as a visceral reaction to the elderly woman asking for her paper back. His voiced raised, he became angry and venting, saying he didn't know it was hers and told her to relax, etc. etc.

This little old woman, WHO WAS CARRYING AROUND AN OXYGEN TANK mind you, was definitely shaken and moved to a table further away from him.

If it had ended at that it would have been a rude situation yes, but whatever, instead the guy started talking loudly to the people at his table calling this elderly woman "a bitch" repeatedly and continued to vent - I turned around and shot the table a look of disgust but kept my mouth shut.

It didn't stop though.

This elderly woman was not rude, simply asked a question, it was only a newspaper section in question, not a million dollars.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, I turned around to the table and said something to the effect of "are you seriously still talking about that nice little old lady asking for the section of the paper back?", to which the gentleman in question (who was probably around my age) said he was entitled to voice his opinion and blah blah blah.

That doesn't mean his opinion wasn't rude, crass, short-sighted and didn't make the entire section uncomfortable. The newspaper didn't belong to him, he didn't need to call a harmless stranger "a bitch", nor did he need to continue to loudly talk about how mad he was at the woman for calling him out.

He had such anger in his tone, that I hope something else was going on in his life that was really worth getting upset about, instead of an elderly woman asking for a section of the PD.

Long story short, the whole episode shook me - why are people so quick to jump to anger and accusations?

This was very timely for me as I'm dealing with a personal situation where I'm frustrated with someone taking the defensive, being aggressive and not taking the time to think about how other people see them.

Thus is life though, and these types of people will always be around.

I take it as my job (and hopefully yours too) to take the high road, always be looking out for others and know that even on your worst day someone else is worse off than you. Everyone is struggling with something and a smile goes a long way.

Be kind to each other today.

Hide and Seek

I was in Orlando the last two days for a quick, in-and-out work trip - your standard business meeting at a business hotel by the Orlando Convention Center.

But that's not the point of this post.

After a great dinner with a client and colleague I headed back up to my hotel room getting into my pajamas, taking out my contacts, taking off my jewelry and turning on the TV - standard protocol.

When my alarm went off in the morning and I got ready as usual, that is, until I couldn't find my engagement ring.

Every single piece of jewelry and my watch from the night before were in their place, but my ring wasn't there.

In my panic had somehow put it in my head that someone had broken into my hotel room while I was sleeping and stolen my ring.

I couldn't breathe.

I tore all the sheets off my bed, looked through all the drawers in the nightstand, moved the nightstand, etc.

Nothing.

My. Heart. Was. Beating. Out. Of. My. Chest.

I was one second away from calling the front desk when I turned the light from my phone under the bed and saw a reflection shining bright like a diamond.

Thank you sweet Jesus.

I still have no idea how it got under the bed, but I'm pretty positive that I now know what a heart attack feels like. 

I would like to never experience that feeling again thankyouverymuch.

Happy Thursday, kids.   

Cleveland weekending

The weekend...

Thursday: Cleveland Clinic Ideas for Tomorrow speaker series with Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey (this was AWESOME) + AAF Cleveland's Addy Awards at the Agora (that's a lot of A's) + Bubbles and flatbreads at Press Wine Bar in Tremont

Seanski and Lzone on the Addys red carpet + CK and Thomas really like colored pants + bubbles + Cosgrove and Jack at the Cleveland Clinic

Friday: A ridiculously amazing meals and cocktails at Spice Kitchen + Bar with CK (this place is officially becoming my favorite restaurant in Cleveland) + MIX: Apocalypse at Cleveland Museum of Art (these first Friday events are quickly becoming my favorite in Cleveland) + Screaming goats with friends at Shibani and Nick's house

The Violet Beauregard from Spice Kitchen + Bar, hello, blueberry infused bourbon? Yes, please. + The gorgeousness that was the Cleveland Museum of Art's atrium during MIX

Saturday: Spinning at Psycle Therapy with Shibani + Coffee and house hunting (more on that later) + FINALLY checking out Pepper's Italian Restaurant in Lakewood with CK, Jen and Stephen (some damn good Italian food) + Lennon Orchestra at Mahall's (and another fun jam band in the Locker Room) + YouTube jam session/sleepover with power couple Jen and Stephen

Talk about a slow drip coffee at Rising Star Coffee Roasters + Pepper's! + Mahall's 20 Lanes (the coolest joint in Cleveland/Lakewood right now)

Sunday: Couch, laundry and ice cream? Sounds about right.

Happy Tuesday, kids!