Fall, According to Steve

As October creeps in behind September, as

the air gets cooler while the night gets longer,

it can only mean one thing....

allergy season 

In high school I would always dread the start of the poetry unit in English. Up until that point, I was viewed as somewhere on the fairly-to-overly-competent scale, depending on the teacher. I read everything that wasn't nailed shut, and was a decent writer, so English and I maintained a healthy, close relationship year to year. However, once Poetry showed up, we were toast. Finito. And our annual break-up wasn't of the you-go-your-way-and-i'll-go-mine variety. We weren't the couple in high school who still smiled at each other in the hallway and said things like "I wish you all the best". No. We were the couple that had a screaming match in the cafeteria, that couple that walked around for the next two weeks with personal bodyguards because each and every time we saw each other in the hallways we would hurl insults at one another.

But anyway. The beginning of this blog post sounded like a poem. Not a real poem but the kind of poem that I would hand in during the poetry unit while the rest of the class worked on becoming the next Robert Frost. And it's killing me. Allergy season, not my poem. Spring allergies come on slowly, you can practically smell it before you feel it. They give a girl a chance to get ahead of her meds. Fall allergies, not so much. Yesterday I was feeling good [speaking of feeling good, watch this. Amazing.] and now bam. I'm under attack. 

But happiness is a state of mind. Right? So what if the weather is cooler, and the days are shorter, and my allergies have arrived, and oh yeah I'm back to school? Fall weather means fall shoes. And fall shoes mean Steve Madden. Nothing helps a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat better than a lil' online shopping. Below is my favorite fall shoe from last season, happily dug out from the depths of attic storage this weekend. And below that is my newest addition to the fall shoe family. What are your favorite fall obsessions?

Thank You Notes

Dear Bruce Springsteen,
Thank you for playing the best encore I've ever heard last Wednesday night. Born to Run, Badlands, Thunder Road, Rosalita, and 25 straight minutes of Twist & Shout? BOSS.
With love,

Dear iPad,
Thank you for rejecting an update to iOS 6. And for getting so angry at my attempt to update you that you completely shut down for two days.
With love,

Dear Important Email Address,
Thank you for not backing up to my Cloud and being located on only my iPad this weekend.
With love,

Dear Pearl Ring,
Thank you for being underneath the passenger seat of my moms car when I didn't even know you were missing and I can't think of the last time I drove in my moms car.
With love,

Dear Thumbtack,
Thank you for being in the exact spot of my pinky toe when I stepped out of my shoe.
With love,

Dear Homes for Sale in Monmouth County,
Thank you for not existing.
With love,

Dear Fiance,
Thank you for being you. =)
With lots of love,

Elyse

Pet Peeves

So I learned a little something about myself this weekend...

This weekend was jam-packed [as usual] with a wedding on Saturday night and a family birthday party on Sunday. We managed to squeeze in a little beach time earlier in the day Sunday - with this weather, how could you not? - as well as a couple of classic Jersey Shore summertime hot spots [here and here]. While walking along the beach in Manasquan we overheard a conversation between two ladies. The one had stopped the other during her bike ride to complement the homemade dog seat attached to the back. The woman on the bike was explaining how she made it and, during the few seconds it took me to walk past them, I heard the seat being described as "brilliant", "lovely", and "beautiful". Now let me assure you. The bike seat was cool. And resourceful. But it was a wire box. There was not a single thing beautiful about it. And, let's be honest, the woman didn't exactly split the atom during the creation of this seat. She used a piece of wood and a Phillips head screwdriver and meanwhile cancer has no cure, humans still can't live on Mars and liquor stores have yet to offer delivery. Brilliant? I think not.

It was during this monologue [others might say rant] that I realize, although I too can err on the side of the dramatic, I loathe when people use adjectives incorrectly. Case in point, later that day I actually heard someone describe an ice cream cone as beautiful. PLAYER, PLEASE. 

Here's to reserving the word beautiful to sunsets, brides on their wedding day, and a brand new pair of Louboutins [kidding...sort of.]

What about you? Does this drive you nuts as well? Or, more likely, am I just completely crazy? Do you have any pet peeves about things that, quite frankly, just don't matter?

WBR: Then Came You

As we eek out what is most likely the last of 2012's warm weather days I'm desperately trying to squeeze in any last minute beach reads. Then Came You is written by one of my favorite authors and she writes about women's fertility from the viewpoint of four very different women, from four very different walks of life. Often, I find it difficult to read a book when I hate one of the main characters [and trust me, regardless of your views on the issue, you will hate one of the women] but Jennifer Weiner has managed to do the impossible: I may hate one woman, but I loved the book.

Jump A Little Lighter

 So I'm here.

Seeing him. 

Praying for this. 

The Bruce Trifecta According to Elyse

1. Rosalita

2. Jersey Girl

3. Thunder Road

Be good to me, Bruce.

Mom's Best Friend

Between births, funerals, and surgeries surrounding [although not directly involving...thank god] my life right now it seems as though I couldn't have come across these two websites at a better time. How genius is this? And this?

And, really, why stop at birth, death, and surgery? Birthday, Christmas, Flag Day... any occasion is an occasion to have homemade-but-not-by-me dinners for a week. Mom's all over the world would rejoice in the streets. They'd have time to, after all.

...and speaking of mom's, thoughts? A blog crush of mine wrote about it the other day and the comments stirred up quite a bit of controversy. [My opinion, you ask? Look up the word satire, people. And then meditate. It's not healthy for your blood pressure to be that high.]

Back in the [New York] Groove

What a freakin' week!

We try to keep things classy over here, usually, but if I could only put into words what last week looked like...well, you're lucky I chose to use the word freakin', is all. But now it's Monday and I welcomed it with open arms. Despite the wonderful weekend, and the fact that every. other. teacher. I know is off today, I found myself happily getting back into the groove and letting things fall into routine again. It's amazing how positively boring a routine could be until likethat you don't have it anymore and then oh, how you crave it again. Below are a few pictures from this weekend where we celebrated the big 3-0 with some wonderful friends. [and, my dear, sweet, blogging world, get ready. Because the mastermind behind this party has finally been convinced to launch her own fabulous party-planning blog. Complete with tutorials. Perfectionist that she is hasn't launched yet but I will keep you updated friends. Rest assured.]

The birthday couple.
Complete with a fancy car and Louboutins.

Pausing our craps game for a quick pic.  

Want the tutorial? Anxiously wait for above mentioned blog to launch. 

S'more Pops.
[Do I smell a sneak peek guest post dear Allison?]

two points for you if you recognized this blog post title as a homage to the Giants win yesterday. Yay!

Thank you

To the many members of our military and their families,

Thank you. 

For your service, your strength, your support and your dedication.

With love, Elyse.

Some Bubbly...

Attending this year's Fashion Night Out was a hectic, chaotic, beautiful mess. We met up with friends in the city with plans to peruse around Soho [home to Piperlime and Kate Spades famous grilled cheese and milkshakes food truck]. After missing our first two trains in Jersey [hey, sometimes Quizno's calls and you just have to answer] we jumped on the E train downtown just in time for the people we were meeting to decide Soho was far too crowded [it was]. We were all anxious to hit up DVF, so it was off to Meatpacking we went. We hit up a photo booth at Kiehls, a tequila lemonade at Scoop NYC, and a champagne dance party at Tory Burch before we had to high-tail it back to Jersey to get something resembling sleep before work on Friday.

WBR: The Secrets of Mary Bowser

Turns out, writing "weekend book review" every week takes an enormous amount of effort.
Effective immediately, it will now be shortened to WBR.

With school back in session, I decided to embrace this whole life-long learning thing and read a book with historic significance. What a book I chose. The Secrets of Mary Bowser is a true story about a slave, freed by her progressive masters who send her to the North for an education. Years later, Mary Bowser voluntarily returns to Virgina even though, by law, she must relinquish her freedom as a black woman crossing over the Virgina state line. She does this, and sacrifices her dream of freedom, to work as a slave in the Confederate White House and act as a spy for the abolitionist's. She deceives even those closest to her as her true purpose and identity in the Confederate White House remains a top secret. Posing as an illiterate slave, she serves President Jefferson Davis during important Confederacy meetings, gains access to top secret documents and is one of only a few spies responsible for drastically changing the course of the Civil War.

Many things about this book shocked me, the first of which was that I never heard of this woman before. Where was this stuff in American History I and II?! Furthermore, I was happily surprised at how novel-like this book read [yep, new word. Invented by yours truly] It didn't feel like I was reading about history - with dates on every other line, and a timeline in the front of the book. Nothing turns me off more then when I'm excitedly flipping through the beginning pages of the book, ready to jump in to the story, and a timeline [or a map!] is the first thing I see after the dedication page. Ms. Leveen did a phenomenal job of making sure she was telling a story, and that story just so happened to be true.

Thumbs up.
Happy reading - and enjoy your weekend!

Yes, yes

I'm on my way!

 

 ps, is it pure irony that Fashion Night Out's acronym would be pronounced "eff no" - the exact response of husbands and boyfriends all over the world [ok, the city] as their ladies put on their walking shoes, take the credit card, and stuff an extra champagne glass in their purse and head off?

pps, in celebration of teacher's everywhere making it through the day, here's the best thing I've ever seen:

A Place of Zen

I'm feeling quite proud of myself for a perfectly timed Real Housewives of New York catch-up marathon upon coming home from school today, the day before my first day with students tomorrow. It was just what I needed to decompress and chill out after running approximately the distance of a half marathon on the stairs [my classroom is on the third floor and, due to some reorganizing during the summer, the nearest copier is on the first floor. My quads are looking mighty fine]. I think for the first time in the five years I've been doing this, I actually [dare I say it?!] feel ready for the first day of school. I'm sure that feeling will all but disappear shortly - after all, there's not a single plan in place for Monday...or any day thereafter, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Here's a few things helping me stay calm [and carry on]

WE'RE BAAACK!!

Do I attend? Even though I have school Friday?
[considering this girl is going to be at the brand-spanking-new Piperlime store, I'd say that's a YES]

Cute shoes under $40? Yes, please!

Goodbye, Summer

For those of you living locally, Mother Nature sure didn't send us off with good weather for the unofficial end of summer. Overcast sky's and cool temperatures mark the beginning of fall more than I'd care to acknowledge. Since yesterday was spent almost entirely indoors, thanks to the on and off rain all day, we reminisced about another summer gone by. Here's a small snippet of summer 2012, according to my iPhone.