an Explosion, Asbestos, Chocolate, and a Celebrity Sighting

So much to blog about, so little time! It was a busy week. On Wednesday, there was a steam explosion right outside my work building. Luckily I had just left for the day and was safely on the subway heading home. My co-workers, didn't fare so well...

It was about 6pm and they heard a loud rumble. We are on the 30th floor, so they looked out the windows and saw only steam. They then looked at the building across the street from us and saw people leaving. They grabbed their belongings and ran out the door, down the 30 flights of stairs and started running West (away from the blast). Nobody could tell them at this point what happened. Luckily other than sore legs, everyone in my office made it out fine.

Click here for the news story.

The next day, the subway wasn't stopping at 42nd street, my stop, so I had to take a different line and walk the rest of the way to work. The streets surrounding my office were all blocked off, tourists were crowding the area, and I was just trying to get to work. We were there for a few hours and then we were given the option to go home. Apparently, when the steam pipes were built (the one that exploded) they used asbestos and with the explosion it was all pumped into the air. Since my office is literally right there, we were probably breathing that air...nice.

So we got to work from home for the rest of the day.
I thought that work from home meant go directly to friend Sara's house, eat a delicious dessert, get a pedicure, take a stroll around the city, and THEN go home and do some work...

On Saturday morning as a continuation of Dereck's birthday celebration, I woke him up super early and took him to Max Brenner's for "the best hot chocolate he's ever had" and some more delicious treats. There is something so right about eating inordinate amounts of chocolate for breakfast!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dereck and I took a trip to St. Luke's to go see Clark Kimball. He is so cute and perfect and I am so happy for Sara and Scott. More details on him later.

After we visited the hospital, we were on Columbus between 68th and 69th and I saw Chris Rock!

He was just strolling along the street, minding his business. Totally caughte me off guard, yet it was kind of cool.

And then, last night, Dereck and I made dinner for my former roommate Wendy and her new fiance! It was sooo much fun and I am so glad they made the trek all the way to Brooklyn from the Upper East Side...:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DERECK!

Just wanted to give a shout out to my darling hubby today. I can't believe I have known him for over 6 years already. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering what life was like before I met him. I am a lucky woman!
(Sorry, apparently I don't have great pictures of him saved on this computer.)

Anyway, I wish you a great upcoming year filled with fun, good food, and more happiness than ever!

Updates

Dereck and I have been somewhat of weekend warriors. We went to Boston the weekend of the 7th and had a great time. We went to a cookout at Dereck’s grandmother’s house in Cambridge. There was delicious food, great company and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day weather-wise. On Sunday, thanks to Tiffany, we went to Kimball Farm. It was a beautiful drive about 40 minutes outside of Boston into the rolling hills. Unfortunately no pictures were taken, of course. However, we got there expecting a little ice cream shop and it was this huge, crowded farm with mini-golf and lobster rolls…
WHO KNEW??
Apparently, a lot of people except us. It was a bit extreme however, their portion sizes were astronomical! But a lot of fun and delicious is an understatement. Anyway, we had a great visit.

Last weekend, I took a whirlwind trip to DC. I left on Friday after work and got home Sunday morning at about 4am. I got to hang out with Devon and Nate who were so cute. I woke up to Nate poking my forehead, saying, Meela with a HUGE GRIN on his face! He was my little friend all day, it was so cute. Kijuana and Devon went to the grocery store and Nate opted to stay with MEELA! They were being soo funny.

I also went to my dear friend Danette’s bridal shower. I am sooo excited for her to marry her longtime boyfriend Eric. They are a perfect pair and I whole-heartedly support their upcoming nuptials. Not that they need my approval, I am just so happy to see them so happy.

After the shower, I unfortunately headed to the hospital. Kijuana had another blood transfusion to prepare her for her Rituxan treatments that started on Monday. It is a weekly treatment that she will do for 6 weeks every Monday. We hung out, ate some Cheesecake Factory and watched America's Got Talent. And then I had to go home on the Chinatown bus so that I could teach Sunbeams on Sunday. Dereck had a class so I battled the 3 year olds alone.

It’s fun being able to go places on the weekends, since I am not in school, but I am exhausted.
This upcoming weekend is Dereck’s birthday, so I am looking forward to hanging out and having some downtime!

Run do not walk

to Max Brenner. My boss took us there for breakfast this morning. (I will now snake around the office the rest of the day.) Wow! It's an amazing concept. The purpose of the outing was to show how this company is amazing at what they do. How they have developed their concept into such a unique brand. It’s better than willy wonka in my opinion. Next time you are in New York, I will be more than glad to take you!
YUM!!!

Happy Independence Day!

It was so nice having a day off work in the middle of the week to celebrate our nation’s independence, however, it didn’t feel much like July because it was kind of a dreary, rainy day here in New York.

Dereck and I mostly spent the day sleeping and eating. Which incidentally are my two favorite things. We slept in a bit, went to brunch at a Brooklyn diner, where I embarrassed Dereck by playing “What’s love got to do with it” on the jukebox when he wasn’t looking. Then went to the fish market and picked up a lobster and some scallops for dinner. Then, we came home, fell asleep, then woke up, made our delicious dinner and watched Pan’s Labrynith. We could see most of the Macy’s fireworks out of our kitchen window (albeit from afar). We had planned to watch them from the roof of our building, but it was kind of chilly, so we opted to stay in.

I was thinking back to the memories I had of fireworks in particular and I remember a certain apartment in college that we called the cereal box because that is exactly the shape of the building. 6 of lived there - it was 3 levels high with 3 rooms on each floor. We would shoot bottle rockets up (or down, depending on the mood) the spiral staircase to startle those who came to visit our home. We would also shoot them underneath a certain roommate’s door while she was making out - not to name names, of course. There was also an occasion that we put some firecrackers in a bucket to scare our neighbors and even managed to get them to swear at us. (Yes, this was BYU).

Aahhh, gotta love the 4th of July. Hope everyone had a great one!