Oh ya and

welcome to my blog! My name is Amanda.  I’m the type of person who actually has to add “RELAX AND DO NOTHING” to my google calendar to actually relax and do nothing. I’m always on the go which is fun and exciting but it catches up with me every so often. So this blog is to document all that fun! I’d say I do some kind of workout about 5-6 days a week and it ranges from yoga to spin to hip hop to basketball to running.  My restaurant list is out of control but luckily I’ve kept a steady pace of moving restaurants from the “Want to eat” list to the “Have eaten here” list but it does not help that NY has a new restaurant basically every week.  I read a bunch of running/healthy living/food blogs and really enjoy the blog world.

Anyway, two nights ago I went to my friend Michelle’s for dinner. She actually knows how to cook and I’ll NEED her help when I decide to “cook” once a week. She made Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits and Chard  Kale and White Bean Stew YUM.

yumm (pic from the link)

yum again (pic from link)

Michelle says this is easy… I beg to differ because you should honestly see me in a kitchen. I unfortunately burned Rice-A-Roni.  Note to self: Don’t walk away from a pot on high heat with just rice inside to go straighten your hair. Pot is long gone.  Before dinner I checked out the Equinox on 17th and 10th Ave. It’s about 10 minutes from me which is 5 minutes closer than the 19th and Broadway location was to my old apartment! The spin room is huge and class was great. The teacher is from Brazil so the music was really fun and, as always, I thought I was going to pass out and die.

I’m still settling into my new place and moving a few things from Stuy Town to Jane, including my bike. Last night I left work at 6 to hopefully ride when it’s still light. Why does the sun set SO much faster than it rises? I don’t get it. I walked into my old place at like 630pm and it was light and I walked out 5 minutes later and it was dark!! I biked cross town on 21st, one of the only cross town bike lanes, and then down 9th and that bike lane is pretty magical. The bike lane is separated from the cars by a massive concrete sidewalk type thing.  I made it home but then had to conquer the basement and bike room locks, which includes and police lock.  Have you ever seen a police lock? Well it looks something like this actually it looks exactly like this:

Hardcore

So after about 5 minutes I get the basement door open. I felt like an idiot because my key was working I just had to push the gate a little harder than I thought.  Then I had to open the police lock, but I forgot the directions I read 5 minutes prior and tried to unlock another lock and freaked out when my key didn’t fit. I finally looked up and saw the police lock. ah ha! yes. Opened it. Mind you… I’m carrying my freaking bike and trying not to break it. I get inside the basement and realize you can’t lock the police lock from inside… whatever. I go and open the bike room YAY! success. but there are tons of bikes just hanging from the ceiling. My bike is going to be OKAY hanging like this?!?!!? are you sure?! My bike is really pretty and I don’t want it hanging like this… but I saw another really pretty bike so I just put it up just like that one. I’m dripping sweat and it’s been about 20 minutes. I exit the basement, lock all 3 locks (struggled at the gate… again. Pulling is harder than pushing!) and make it home.

I organized my jewelry and put the crap on my desk in piles. Piles make me feel much better than clutter. Then I find a local sushi spot. I walked down Hudson to pick it up and ahh Hudson is soooo great. There were so many people out and eating outside and drinking and having a good time. Need to be one of those people soon. The sushi was good… I ordered a Hudson roll, which is shrimp tempura with tuna on top. I asked if it could be spicy tuna instead of regular tuna and they said sure! When I got the roll it was just tuna with spicy sauce and they charged me $2 more… not cool. With the AAC roll it was $19. ack. Not cheap. No more Sushi West.

Things I need to actually be settled:

• Rug (so I don’t tip toe around feeling terrible for the old man below me)
• Desk organization something
• Bathroom organization so makeup/hair everything isn’t on the floor
• Kitchen stuff
• Food
• Hang art
• Hang scarf holder!

This morning I ran about 3 miles along the Hudson. SOO pretty and peaceful. And my shin didn’t hurt! I’ll talk about that later. Silly shin.

Good morning west side!

So pretty. It was chilly but crisp and beautiful.

Excited for the fun filled weekend ahead. Ciao!